Mushroom Identifier

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 Purple Cort

Viscid Violet Cort

Gilled

A slimy violet-capped webcap of eastern North American oak woods that develops pale yellowish spots and streaks as it ages. The viscid stem and rusty spore print confirm the genus.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Purple Jellydisc

Jellies

Clusters of rubbery reddish-purple blobs and shallow discs crowding dead beech stumps, alternating between a lumpy asexual form and neat spore-bearing cups.

Spore print · White

Purple Brittlegill

Gilled

A common brittlegill with a deep purple cap darkening almost to black at the centre, cream gills and a firm white stipe that ages dirty grey.

Spore print · Pale cream

Purple-spored Puffball

Puffballs

A large grassland puffball whose mature spore mass turns a distinctive purple-brown and whose sterile base persists through winter as a vase-shaped cup. The skin cracks into polygonal patches as it expands.

Spore print · Purple to purple-brown spore mass

Bruising Webcap

Gilled

A robust webcap with a slimy streaky olive-brown cap whose violet gills and flesh flush deep purple wherever they are rubbed or cut.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Bloodred Webcap

Gilled

A small webcap coloured deep blood-red throughout, cap, gills and stipe alike, fruiting among mosses in damp spruce and pine forest.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Pearly Webcap

Gilled

A pale silvery-violet webcap of broadleaf woodland with a silky, pearl-sheened cap and a club-shaped stipe wrapped in a whitish veil sheath.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Cinnamon Webcap

Gilled

A small slender webcap with a silky cinnamon-brown cap, crowded saffron to golden-yellow gills and a yellow-olive stipe, fruiting in mossy conifer woodland.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Violet Webcap

Violet Webcap

Gilled

A large, sombre, dark violet woodland mushroom with a dry felty cap, violet gills that rust over with maturity, and a cobwebby veil linking cap margin to stem.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Stocking Webcap

Gilled

A firm violet-tinged webcap of beech and oak woodland whose lower stipe is sheathed in a white boot-like veil ending in a crisp upturned rim.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Corn Smut

Corn Smut

Other Fungi

A smut fungus that turns maize kernels, tassels and leaves into swollen silvery-grey galls which rupture to release masses of sooty black spores. It occurs wherever maize is grown.

Spore print · Not applicable

Gassy Webcap

Gilled

A stout lilac webcap of northern conifer forest with dry silky cap, ochre-saffron marbled flesh and a strong penetrating gas-like smell.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Dappled Webcap

Gilled

A striking webcap whose pale cream cap is broken into flat coppery-red scales, with white flesh that yellows and then reddens where cut.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Red Banded Webcap

Gilled

A large brick-coloured birch webcap, instantly known by the two to five bright cinnabar-red belts wrapped around its stout club-shaped stipe.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Primrose Brittlegill

Gilled

A dark purple pine-wood brittlegill named for its primrose-yellow gills, which contrast sharply with the violet-flushed stipe. It is one of the most consistent brittlegills of sandy conifer plantations.

Spore print · Pale cream

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

Silverleaf Fungus

Crusts

A thin, tiered crust with turned-out bracket edges: white and hairy above, smooth violet-purple below. It is the cause of silver leaf in plums, cherries and other rosaceous trees.

Spore print · White

Violet-gray Bolete

Boletes

A handsome bolete with a deep violet-purple cap and matching stipe, white pores that age pink, and unchanging white flesh. A common oak associate in eastern North America.

Spore print · Pinkish-brown

Cortinarius gentilis

Gilled

A small, slender, tawny-orange webcap of mossy conifer forest, with thick widely spaced ochre gills and yellowish veil bands on a slim stem. Its dry silky cap carries a sharp umbo.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Cortinarius rubellus

Gilled

A slender foxy-orange webcap of mossy conifer forest, recognised by its sharply umbonate fibrillose cap, thick widely spaced rusty gills and pale yellow bands on the stipe.

Spore print · Rusty brown

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

Cortinarius orellanus

Gilled

A medium-sized tawny webcap of oak and beech woodland with a dry, finely scaly convex cap, thick distant cinnamon gills and a tapering yellow-brown stipe without veil belts.

Spore print · Rusty brown

Yellow-gilled Gymnopilus

Gilled

A colourful rustgill with a purplish-red, fibrillose-scaly cap and brilliant yellow gills that mature to rust, commonly clustered on wood chip beds.

Spore print · Rusty orange-brown

Mauve Parachute

Gilled

A jewel-like tropical parachute with a deeply pleated purple-red cap, pale distant gills and a shining black hair of a stem, scattered on fallen twigs and leaves.

Spore print · White