Fungi encyclopedia
A reference for the fungi you actually find
Each entry describes one species the way you meet it in the field — the cap and its surface, what sits underneath, the stipe and its base, the spore print colour, the substrate it fruits from, and the species most often confused with it.
Showing results for “Lilac Bonnet, Amethyst Deceiver”
Amethyst Deceiver
Gilled
A small woodland mushroom that is intensely violet when fresh and moist, with thick, widely spaced gills of the same colour and a fibrous, twisted stem. It fades so dramatically as it dries that it can look like a completely different species.
Spore print · White
Lilac Bonnet
Gilled
A litter-dwelling bonnet with a lilac, violet or pinkish cap, broad widely spaced gills and a strong radish smell. Colour varies widely, so the odour and gill structure matter more than the shade.
Spore print · White
The Deceiver
Gilled
A hugely variable pinkish-tan woodland mushroom named for its shifting appearance, identified by thick, widely spaced flesh-pink gills and a fibrous twisted stem.
Spore print · White
Amethyst Chanterelle
Gilled
A European chanterelle whose egg-yellow cap is dusted with small appressed amethyst to lilac scales. Below, it has the family's usual blunt yellow forking ridges running down a tapering stalk.
Spore print · Pale cream to yellowish
Deceiving Milkcap
Gilled
A small, pale pinkish-tan milkcap whose white latex turns bright yellow within seconds of exposure. A faint geranium-like odour and a preference for hornbeam and hazel help confirm it.
Spore print · Pale cream
Bleeding Bonnet
Gilled
A minute reddish bonnet that releases dark blood-red juice from its thread-like stem and carries matching dark red edges along its gills. It fruits in mossy litter in both conifer and broadleaf woodland.
Spore print · White
Yellowleg Bonnet
Gilled
A small bonnet with a slimy, peelable cap skin and a slender, sticky, bright lemon-yellow stem. The elastic separable pellicle on cap and gill edge is its defining feature.
Spore print · White
Clustered Bonnet
Gilled
A small bell-capped bonnet that grows in dense tufts on oak and sweet chestnut stumps, recognised by the finely toothed, scalloped cap edge and a slender stem that turns golden then rusty orange-brown below.
Spore print · White
Grooved Bonnet
Gilled
A firm grey bonnet distinguished by its rigid, silvery-grey stipe marked with fine longitudinal grooves running its full length. It arises from buried hardwood roots and decaying stumps.
Spore print · White
Lilac Fibrecap
Gilled
A small silky fibrecap washed with lilac to violet tones and topped by a pointed umbo, its gills maturing to dull clay-brown. Frequently found alongside its plain white counterpart.
Spore print · Snuff-brown
Blackedge Bonnet
Gilled
A sturdy lilac-brown bonnet whose pale violaceous gills carry sharply contrasting dark purple-black edges. It fruits in troops through beech and other broadleaf litter and smells strongly of radish.
Spore print · White
Common Bonnet
Gilled
A tough-stemmed grey-brown bonnet with a radially grooved bell-shaped cap and pink-tinged, cross-veined gills, fruiting in tufts on hardwood stumps for most of the year.
Spore print · White
Angel's Bonnet
Gilled
A late-fruiting bonnet with an olive-grey to yellowish cap and a slender stem, growing in tufts on mossy hardwood. Fresh material carries a distinctive iodine-like smell.
Spore print · White
Saffrondrop Bonnet
Gilled
A slender woodland bonnet whose broken stem releases vivid saffron-orange latex that stains everything it touches. It is closely tied to beech leaf litter on lime-rich ground.
Spore print · White
Beautiful Bonnet
Gilled
A tufted wood bonnet with a pale ochre-brown cap and a striking bright yellow stipe, most often found on beech. The contrast between pale cap and vivid stem base gives it its name.
Spore print · White
Rosy Bonnet
Gilled
A stout, evenly rose-pink bonnet of beech and oak litter, larger and firmer than most of its genus, with widely spaced pale gills and a pronounced radish smell.
Spore print · White
Milking Bonnet
Gilled
A small grey-brown bonnet of woodland litter whose slender stem releases a white milky drop when snapped. Blackish and pure white colour forms occur alongside the typical grey.
Spore print · White
Scarlet Bonnet
Gilled
A small bonnet with a coral-pink to scarlet conical cap that fades towards orange-pink with age, carried on a slender pale stem. It fruits among mosses, grasses and conifer needles.
Spore print · White
Dripping Bonnet
Gilled
A minute pale bonnet whose thin stem is sheathed in a thick, glassy layer of slime far wider than the stalk itself. It fruits on twigs, bramble stems and fallen plant debris.
Spore print · White
Orange Bonnet
Gilled
A minute bonnet with a vivid orange to orange-red cap perched on a slender yellow stem, fruiting on wet twigs and fallen debris. Its size is measured in millimetres but its colour is unmistakable.
Spore print · White
Lilac-brown Bolete
Boletes
A dark, softly purple-brown bolete whose pore surface is purple-grey from the start and whose stipe is densely peppered with fine dark purplish dots.
Spore print · Reddish-brown to pinkish-brown
Golden-edge Bonnet
Gilled
A small conifer-litter bonnet whose dull olive-brown cap hides gills bordered with brilliant orange edges. The orange tone is repeated on the stipe and its basal hairs.
Spore print · White
Bleeding Fairy Helmet
Gilled
A delicate reddish-brown bonnet that exudes dark blood-red latex from its hollow stipe when broken, growing in tight clusters on rotting hardwood.
Spore print · White
Oak Crust
Crusts
A thin lilac-grey waxy crust on dead oak twigs that curls away from the bark as it dries, exposing a dark brown to black under-surface.
Spore print · White