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 Sulfur Tuft

Sulphur Tuft

Sulphur Tuft

Gilled

A very common stump fungus forming crowded tufts of small sulphur-yellow caps with rusty centres, sulphur-yellow gills that age greenish then purple-brown, and a purple-brown spore print.

Spore print · Purple-brown

Conifer Tuft

Gilled

A tightly clustered woodland fungus of conifer stumps, recognised by its tan-ochre cap and gills that shift from whitish to a distinctive smoky grey.

Spore print · Purple-brown

Brick Cap

Brick Cap

Gilled

A clustering wood-rotting fungus with a brick-red cap fading to buff at the rim, pale gills that age to greyish purple-brown, and a rusty-based stem with only a faint fibrous ring zone.

Spore print · Purple-brown

Sulphur Knight

Gilled

A medium-sized woodland knight with an unmistakable sulphur-yellow cap, gills and stipe, and a powerful coal-gas odour. The colour runs right through the flesh, which separates it from most other yellow-tinted Tricholoma species.

Spore print · White

Porcelain Fungus

Gilled

Glistening white, almost translucent caps coated in thick slime, clustered high on dead and dying beech, with a distinct ring on the slender white stem.

Spore print · White

Clustered Toughshank

Gilled

Crowded tufts of slim pale mushrooms whose long stems, densely coated in fine white hairs, fuse together at a common base buried in the leaf litter.

Spore print · White

Clustered Brittlestem

Clustered Brittlestem

Gilled

A brittlestem that grows in tight bouquets of dozens of slender stems fused at a common base, each carrying a small conical tan cap. The stems are white, hollow and snap cleanly.

Spore print · Dark purple-brown

Agaricus bohusii

Gilled

An unusual Agaricus that fruits in dense caespitose clusters, its caps streaked with dark brown fibrous scales and its stipes crowded and often bent. Favours nitrogen-rich soil under broadleaf trees.

Spore print · Dark brown

Fuzzy Foot

Gilled

A tiny orange-brown bell-shaped mushroom that erupts in enormous swarms across mossy conifer logs, recognised by decurrent veined gills and a tuft of tawny fuzz at the stipe base.

Spore print · White

Flame Mycena

Gilled

A brilliant scarlet to flame-orange bonnet of western North American conifer duff, with orange gills edged in red and a tuft of orange fibrils at the stem base.

Spore print · White

Oakmoss

Other Fungi

A soft, antler-branched lichen with flattened straps that are greenish above and chalky white beneath, forming tufts on oak and other deciduous bark.

Spore print · Not applicable

Orange Mycena

Gilled

A vividly orange, sticky-capped bonnet that grows in dense tufts on hardwood logs and is instantly recognised by the bright orange edges of its otherwise pale gills.

Spore print · White

Brown Birch Bolete

Brown Birch Bolete

Boletes

The commonest of the scaber stalks, a tall grey-brown bolete of birch woodland with a slender stem roughened by dark scaly tufts.

Spore print · Snuff-brown

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

Pearly Parachute

Gilled

A pale, silky-capped litter mushroom of beech woods, faintly washed with lilac-grey and growing in loose tufts from a white woolly base in the leaf mould.

Spore print · White

Iceland Moss

Iceland Moss

Other Fungi

An erect, tufted lichen of arctic and mountain heaths with curled chestnut-brown straps whose margins are fringed with tiny stiff spines.

Spore print · Not applicable

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

White Spindles

Corals & Clubs

Clusters of slender, brittle, pure white unbranched clubs that grow in tight tufts among moss and short grass. They snap at the slightest pressure, giving the species its name.

Spore print · White

Wolf Lichen

Other Fungi

An unmistakable neon yellow-green shrubby lichen that forms bristly tufts on conifer bark and bare weathered wood in dry mountain forests.

Spore print · Not applicable

Sheathed Woodtuft

Sheathed Woodtuft

Gilled

A tufted stump mushroom whose hygrophanous cap dries in two tones from the centre out, above a narrow ring and a stem clad below in coarse dark upturned scales.

Spore print · Ochre-brown to cinnamon brown

Spiny Puffball

Puffballs

A small round puffball densely armed with long dark brown spines that converge in tufts, leaving a net-like pattern where they fall. It is typically found on rich humus beneath beech.

Spore print · Purple-brown spore mass

Scaly Inkcap

Gilled

A clustered inkcap whose buff-brown bell-shaped cap is decorated with felty whitish veil patches. It fruits in tufts on hardwood stumps and buried wood.

Spore print · Black

Alder Scalycap

Gilled

A tufted lemon-yellow Pholiota of wet woodland that grows on alder and birch stumps, with a smooth slightly sticky cap, sweetish scent and clay-brown spore print.

Spore print · Clay-brown to rust-brown

Common Stump Brittlestem

Gilled

A densely tufted stump mushroom with a date-brown cap that dries pale from the centre outward, brittle hollow white stems, and dark purple-brown spores.

Spore print · Dark purple-brown