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 Thin-maze Flat Polypore

Mossy Maze Polypore

Polypores

A thin, tough shelf fungus with a coarsely hairy grey-white cap that is usually stained green by algae, and a distinctive greyish maze-like pore surface that breaks up into blunt teeth with age.

Spore print · White

Flat Crep

Flat Crep

Gilled

A small white to buff fan-shaped mushroom attached sideways to rotting hardwood, with radiating gills that darken to cinnamon and no real stem. It often grows in overlapping tiers.

Spore print · Pale cinnamon-brown

Flat Oysterling

Gilled

A small, white to buff, flattened fan-shaped bracket on rotting hardwood, whose brown spore print and finely lined, radiating gills separate it from all the white-spored oyster relatives.

Spore print · Pale brown

Flat-topped Coral

Corals & Clubs

A stout orange-ochre club with a broad, flat, wrinkled top that looks as if it has been sliced off. A conifer-forest species of western and northern regions.

Spore print · White to pale yellow

Dyer's Polypore

Dyer's Polypore

Polypores

A large, velvety, concentrically zoned rosette at the foot of conifers, rusty brown at the centre with a vivid yellow growing edge and olive-yellow pores that bruise dark brown.

Spore print · White to pale yellow

Veiled Polypore

Polypores

A small, hard, pale globe or hoof attached to dead conifer bark, unique among polypores in having its pore surface sealed inside a membranous veil pierced by a single small opening.

Spore print · White

Rooting Polypore

Polypores

A tall stalked polypore that appears to grow from bare ground, its blackish scurfy stem tapering into a long root-like extension that reaches buried hardwood below.

Spore print · White

Tuberous Polypore

Polypores

A stout stalked polypore with a scaly ochre cap, fringed margin and large white decurrent pores, often arising from a hard, stone-like underground mass of soil-bound mycelium.

Spore print · White

Winter Polypore

Polypores

A small, tough, centrally stalked polypore with a dull grey-brown velvety cap and fine white decurrent pores, notable for fruiting in the cold months when little else is out.

Spore print · White

Resinous Polypore

Polypores

A broad, soft, velvety bracket that is reddish brown with a thick white growing edge, exudes amber droplets when young, and has a white pore surface that bruises brownish.

Spore print · White

Umbrella Polypore

Polypores

A large branched cluster bearing dozens of small circular grey-brown caps, each with its own central stalk, growing from an underground tuber near hardwood roots.

Spore print · White

Birch Polypore

Birch Polypore

Polypores

A smooth, pale, rubbery bracket that grows almost exclusively on birch, recognised by its rounded kidney shape, thick inrolled margin and fine white pore surface.

Spore print · White

Flat-topped Agaricus

Gilled

A North American woodland Agaricus with a characteristically flat-topped, grey-scaled cap, a bulbous stipe base that flushes chrome-yellow and a sharp inky odour.

Spore print · Dark chocolate brown

Giant Polypore

Giant Polypore

Polypores

A huge overlapping rosette of tan-brown zoned fans at the foot of beech and other broadleaves, with a fine white pore surface that turns black wherever it is touched.

Spore print · White

Cinnabar Polypore

Cinnabar Polypore

Polypores

An unmistakable bracket coloured vivid orange-red throughout, from the smooth upper surface to the fine pore layer beneath.

Spore print · White

Berkeley's Polypore

Berkeley's Polypore

Polypores

One of the largest fungi of eastern North American forests, forming a massive rosette of thick cream to tan fans with coarse angular pores at the base of oaks.

Spore print · White

Gilled Polypore

Polypores

A tough, zoned, hairy bracket whose underside is made of thick radiating gill-like plates rather than round pores, growing on dead birch and other hardwoods throughout the year.

Spore print · White

Weeping Polypore

Polypores

A massive lumpy bracket at the foot of oak trees, unmistakable when young for the beads of amber liquid that stand all over its buff upper surface.

Spore print · Whitish to pale yellow

Spring Polypore

Polypores

A small centrally stalked polypore with a scaly tan cap edged in coarse hairs and unusually large angular white pores that run down the stem.

Spore print · White

Hexagonal-pored Polypore

Hexagonal-pored Polypore

Polypores

A thin, orange-tinted polypore of fallen hardwood twigs whose underside is a striking honeycomb of very large, radially stretched hexagonal pores.

Spore print · White

Cracked Cap Polypore

Cracked Cap Polypore

Polypores

A hard perennial conk almost restricted to black locust, its blackened upper crust splitting into deep blocky cracks above a rich rusty brown pore surface.

Spore print · Pale yellowish to whitish

Blue Cheese Polypore

Blue Cheese Polypore

Polypores

A small, soft, hairy white bracket that develops distinct blue-grey tints, especially on the pore surface and where bruised, growing in tiers on dead conifer wood.

Spore print · Pale bluish white

Black-staining Polypore

Black-staining Polypore

Polypores

A large clustered rosette of grey-brown fans at the foot of hardwood trees whose white pore surface and pale flesh blacken within minutes of being touched.

Spore print · White

Violet-toothed Polypore

Polypores

Thin, flexible brackets massed in rows along dead hardwood, recognised by an underside that is violet when fresh and breaks up into ragged teeth with age.

Spore print · White