1
Bay Bolete
Imleria badia
A bay-brown capped bolete with pores that bruise slowly blue, a common autumn edible of European forests.
This is the full mushrooms index — 61 detailed mushrooms, each with its own profile. Click any name to open the full entry.
For mushrooms, every profile covers scientific name, family, edibility, habitat, and identification notes.
All Mushrooms
2
Beefsteak Fungus
Fistulina hepatica
A blood-red bracket fungus that grows on oak and chestnut, named for its meat-like appearance and red juice.
3
Birch Bolete
Leccinum scabrum
A grey-brown capped bolete with a tall scaly stem, growing only under birch trees.
4
Bird's Nest
Cyathus striatus
A tiny cup-shaped fungus filled with disc-like "eggs" that are splashed out by raindrops.
5
Black Truffle
Tuber melanosporum
A black warty underground ascomycete from oak woodlands of southern Europe, treasured as the diamant noir of French cuisine.
6
Black Trumpet
Craterellus cornucopioides
A dark, hollow funnel-shaped chanterelle relative with smoky flavour, sometimes called the "horn of plenty."
7
Brown Beech
Hypsizygus tessellatus
A cultivated cluster mushroom from East Asia with marbled tan caps, the natural-coloured strain of bunashimeji.
8
Button Mushroom
Agaricus bisporus
The young white form of the world's most cultivated mushroom, Agaricus bisporus.
9
Cauliflower Fungus
Sparassis crispa
A large cream-coloured cluster of ribbon-like flaps that fruits at the base of conifers, resembling a head of cauliflower.
10
Cep
Boletus edulis
The French name for Boletus edulis, the same prized bolete known as porcini in Italy and penny bun in Britain.
11
Chaga
Inonotus obliquus
A dark cracked sterile growth that bursts from birch trunks in cold climates, valued in traditional folk medicine.
12
Chanterelle
Cantharellus cibarius
A trumpet-shaped golden-yellow mycorrhizal mushroom with false gills and an apricot scent, prized in European cuisine.
13
Chicken of the Woods
Laetiporus sulphureus
A bright sulphur-yellow and orange bracket fungus that grows in shelves on living and dead hardwood trees.
14
Common Inkcap
Coprinopsis atramentaria
A grey scaly inkcap that reacts dangerously with alcohol, causing flushing and palpitations.
15
Common Puffball
Lycoperdon perlatum
A small pear-shaped puffball covered in fine spines, edible when pure white inside.
16
Coral Tooth
Hericium coralloides
A cascading white tooth fungus that grows on hardwoods, related to lion's mane and equally edible.
17
Cordyceps
Ophiocordyceps sinensis
An orange club-shaped fungus that parasitises caterpillars on high Himalayan slopes, central to Tibetan and Chinese medicine.
18
Cremini
Agaricus bisporus
The brown-capped immature form of Agaricus bisporus, also sold as chestnut or baby bella mushrooms.
19
Deadly Webcap
Cortinarius rubellus
A nondescript rusty-brown Cortinarius whose toxin destroys the kidneys over weeks, often without early warning.
20
Death Cap
Amanita phalloides
A pale greenish-capped Amanita that causes the majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide.
21
Destroying Angel
Amanita virosa
A pure white Amanita that contains the same liver-destroying amatoxins as the death cap.
22
Earthball
Scleroderma citrinum
A hard yellow-brown warty ball with a purple-black interior, mildly toxic and often confused with edible puffballs.
23
Earthstar
Geastrum triplex
A puffball-relative whose outer skin splits open into a many-pointed star to reveal a spore sac.
24
Enoki
Flammulina velutipes
A long-stemmed white mushroom grown in tightly packed bundles, popular across East Asian cooking.
25
False Morel
Gyromitra esculenta
A brain-shaped reddish-brown spring fungus containing a potent hydrazine toxin, sometimes lethal.
26
Field Mushroom
Agaricus campestris
The classic wild meadow mushroom, ancestor of the cultivated button and a staple of late-summer foraging.
27
Fly Agaric
Amanita muscaria
The iconic red-capped white-spotted toadstool of European folklore, containing the psychoactive compounds muscimol and ibotenic acid.
28
Fool's Mushroom
Amanita verna
A spring-fruiting white Amanita with the same liver-destroying amatoxins as the death cap.
29
Funeral Bell
Galerina marginata
A small brown wood-rotting mushroom containing the same amatoxins as the death cap, often mistaken for edible species.
30
Giant Puffball
Calvatia gigantea
An enormous white spherical mushroom of rich grassland, edible when young and bright white throughout.
31
Hedgehog Mushroom
Hydnum repandum
A cream-buff cap mushroom with soft tooth-like spines instead of gills, beloved by beginner foragers for its safety and flavour.
32
Hen of the Woods
Grifola frondosa
A large rosette of grey-brown fan-shaped caps that fruits at the base of oaks, also known as maitake in Japan.
33
Horse Mushroom
Agaricus arvensis
A large fragrant white meadow agaric smelling of aniseed, growing in grass enriched by livestock.
34
Jack-o'-Lantern
Omphalotus illudens
A bright orange clustered mushroom whose gills faintly glow in the dark, often mistaken for chanterelles.
35
King Oyster
Pleurotus eryngii
A thick-stemmed Mediterranean oyster mushroom with firm scallop-like flesh, popular in restaurant cooking.
36
Liberty Cap
Psilocybe semilanceata
A small slender autumn grassland mushroom containing psilocybin, common in upland European pasture.
37
Lion's Mane
Hericium erinaceus
A cascading white tooth fungus that grows on hardwoods and tastes faintly of crab or lobster when cooked.
38
Maitake
Grifola frondosa
The Japanese name for Grifola frondosa, a layered rosette of fan caps with both culinary and medicinal value.
39
Morel
Morchella esculenta
A spring-fruiting ascomycete with a distinctive honeycombed conical cap, one of the most prized edibles in the foraging world.
40
Oyster Mushroom
Pleurotus ostreatus
A shelf-forming pale grey to tan mushroom that grows in overlapping clusters on hardwood logs, both wild and widely cultivated.
41
Parasol Mushroom
Macrolepiota procera
A tall scaly mushroom of grasslands with a wide-spreading cap and a snake-skin stem, much-loved as an edible "schnitzel."
42
Penny Bun
Boletus edulis
The British name for Boletus edulis, the bun-shaped brown-capped bolete also known as cep and porcini.
43
Porcini
Boletus edulis
A stout, brown-capped bolete prized worldwide for its meaty texture and nutty aroma when dried.
44
Portobello
Agaricus bisporus
The fully mature brown-capped form of Agaricus bisporus, with broad open gills and a meaty texture.
45
Reishi
Ganoderma lingzhi
A shiny lacquered bracket fungus used for centuries in East Asian medicine, sometimes called the "mushroom of immortality."
46
Saffron Milk Cap
Lactarius deliciosus
An orange concentric-banded cap that bleeds carrot-coloured milk when cut, a classic Mediterranean and Eastern European edible.
47
Shaggy Mane
Coprinus comatus
A tall, cylindrical white inkcap with shaggy scales that dissolves into black ink with age.
48
Shiitake
Lentinula edodes
An umber-brown East Asian wood-decomposing mushroom and the world's second most cultivated edible fungus.
49
Slippery Jack
Suillus luteus
A glossy chestnut-brown bolete with a sticky cap and a stem ring, growing in association with pines.
50
St George's Mushroom
Calocybe gambosa
A cream-coloured spring-fruiting field mushroom, traditionally appearing in Europe around St George's Day on 23 April.
51
Stinkhorn
Phallus impudicus
A phallic-shaped fungus topped with a foul black slime, evolved to attract flies that disperse its spores.
52
Sulphur Tuft
Hypholoma fasciculare
A bright sulphur-yellow clustered mushroom of stumps and dead wood, bitter and toxic but easy to recognise.
53
Summer Bolete
Boletus reticulatus
A pale brown-capped bolete with a finely cracked surface, fruiting earlier than its porcini cousins.
54
Tremella
Tremella fuciformis
A translucent yellow gelatinous fungus, also called snow ear or silver ear, used in East Asian sweet soups and skincare.
55
Turkey Tail
Trametes versicolor
A common multicoloured bracket fungus with concentric bands, widely used in traditional Asian medicine and modern immunology research.
56
Webcap
Cortinarius species
The huge genus of cortinarius mushrooms, several of which contain the slow-acting kidney toxin orellanine.
57
White Beech
Hypsizygus tessellatus
A cultivated cream-coloured cluster mushroom from East Asia, often sold under the name bunashimeji.
58
White Truffle
Tuber magnatum
A pale tan underground ascomycete from the Piedmont hills, the most expensive edible mushroom in the world.
59
Witches' Butter
Tremella mesenterica
A bright orange-yellow jelly fungus that fruits on dead hardwoods after rain, harmless if usually flavourless.
60
Wood Blewit
Lepista nuda
A lilac-tinged cap and gill mushroom of autumn leaf litter, with a perfumed flavour and a long British folk tradition.
61
Yellow Stainer
Agaricus xanthodermus
A white-capped Agaricus that bruises chrome yellow and smells of iodine, a common cause of mushroom-related stomach upset.
About this mushrooms index
That's our current full list of mushrooms. We add new entries every week — if there's a mushroom you'd like us to cover, let us know and we'll write it up.
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