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Food & foraging

What mushroom is this?

This key narrows possibilities. It does not confirm an identification and it never authorises eating anything. Work through it in the order a mycologist does: what is under the cap, what colour is the spore print, and what is it growing out of. Anything with white gills and a bag at the base of the stem gets treated as a death cap until an expert says otherwise.

Entries 28Filters 5 Updated 2026-09-04 Cost Free, no account

Do not eat any wild mushroom identified from a website, an app, or a photograph. The death cap and the destroying angel are responsible for around 90% of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide, they look like ordinary field mushrooms, and there is no antidote — symptoms clear after a day and the liver fails on the third. If someone has eaten an unknown mushroom, call poison control immediately (US: 800-222-1222) and keep a specimen, even a chewed one. Do not wait for symptoms.

Narrow it down

Underside of the cap

The first cut in every mushroom key.

Spore print colour

Cap on paper, covered, for a few hours. It is the single most useful test there is.

Stem features
Growing on
Risk

Showing all 28 mushrooms

  1. Death cap

    Can injure you

    Amanita phalloides

    Greenish, olive or yellowish cap with a faint radial sheen, white gills that never darken, a white skirt-like ring, and — the critical feature — a white membranous sac at the base that is usually buried and has to be dug for.

    Size
    Cap 5–15 cm
    Where
    Europe, and now widespread in California, the Pacific Northwest and the northeastern US under introduced oaks.
    Confused with
    Young button stages look exactly like edible field mushrooms and puffballs; the green cap looks like an edible russula or a paddy straw mushroom. Slice any suspected puffball vertically — an outline of a mushroom inside means Amanita.
    Risk
    Amatoxins destroy the liver. Half a cap can kill an adult. Symptoms begin 6–24 hours later, appear to resolve on day two, and organ failure follows on day three. Cooking, drying and freezing do nothing.

    In the record 36,397 georeferenced records · half of them Sep–Oct · most distinctive in August · mostly from the Netherlands check on GBIF

    How mushroom identification works

  2. Destroying angel

    Can injure you

    Amanita bisporigera, A. ocreata, A. virosa

    Pure white throughout — cap, gills, stem and ring — with a sac at the buried base and a slightly shaggy stem. Elegant, and the most dangerous mushroom in North America.

    Size
    Cap 5–12 cm
    Where
    Across North America and Europe, under oak and other hardwoods.
    Confused with
    Young button stages resemble puffballs and white field mushrooms. Field mushrooms have pink or brown gills and never a basal sac.
    Risk
    The same amatoxins as the death cap, and the same delayed course. There is no home test and no antidote.

    In the record 4,153 georeferenced records · half of them Jun–Aug · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  3. Fly agaric

    Can injure you

    Amanita muscaria

    The storybook mushroom: scarlet to orange cap studded with white warts, white gills, a ring, and a stem base ringed with concentric scaly bands.

    Size
    Cap 8–20 cm
    Where
    Under birch, pine and spruce across the northern hemisphere.
    Risk
    Ibotenic acid and muscimol. Causes delirium, nausea, sedation and confusion rather than organ damage, but hospitalisations are routine and dosage is unpredictable.

    In the record 316,522 georeferenced records · half of them Oct–Oct · most distinctive in October · mostly from the Netherlands check on GBIF

  4. Deadly galerina

    Can injure you

    Galerina marginata

    A small nondescript brown mushroom with a faint ring on a brownish stem, growing in clusters on decaying wood. Rust-brown spore print.

    Size
    Cap 2–4 cm
    Where
    On rotting conifer and hardwood across the northern hemisphere.
    Confused with
    Almost identical to several edible wood-rotting species, including honey fungus and the psilocybin-containing <em>Psilocybe</em> species it grows alongside. It has killed people hunting both.
    Risk
    Contains the same amatoxins as the death cap in a mushroom the size of a thumbnail.

    In the record 29,533 georeferenced records · half of them Sep–Oct · most distinctive in December · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  5. Jack-o'-lantern

    Handle with care

    Omphalotus olearius, O. illudens

    Bright pumpkin-orange throughout, in dense overlapping clumps at the base of a stump, with <strong>true sharp-edged gills that run down the stem</strong>. The gills glow faintly green in complete darkness.

    Size
    Cap 5–15 cm
    Where
    Eastern North America and southern Europe, at the base of hardwood stumps.
    Confused with
    Chanterelle, the classic and frequent error. Chanterelles have blunt forking ridges rather than gills, grow singly from soil, and are never in a clump on wood.
    Risk
    Violent vomiting and cramps for several hours. Rarely dangerous, reliably memorable.

    In the record 2,597 georeferenced records · half of them Oct–Nov · most distinctive in November · mostly from Spain check on GBIF

  6. Chanterelle

    Cantharellus species

    Egg-yellow, funnel-shaped, with blunt forking ridges running down the stem rather than knife-edged gills, growing singly from soil. Smells of apricot.

    Size
    Cap 3–10 cm
    Where
    Woodland across North America and Europe, in mycorrhizal association with oak, beech and conifers.
    Confused with
    Jack-o'-lantern, which is on wood in clumps with true gills, and the false chanterelle, which has thin crowded true gills and a darker orange centre.

  7. Morel

    Handle with care

    Morchella species

    A honeycombed conical cap of pits and ridges, attached to the stem at its base, and — the essential check — <strong>completely hollow from cap tip to stem base when sliced lengthwise</strong>.

    Size
    Cap 4–12 cm
    Where
    Across the northern hemisphere in spring, often after fire or near dying elms and ash.
    Confused with
    False morel (<em>Gyromitra</em>), which is brain-like and wrinkled rather than pitted, and is chambered with cottony fibre inside rather than hollow. Slice every one lengthwise.
    Risk
    Must be cooked thoroughly. Raw morels cause gastrointestinal illness, and they should not be eaten with alcohol by anyone who has reacted before.

    In the record 44,728 georeferenced records · half of them Mar–Apr · most distinctive in April · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  8. False morel

    Can injure you

    Gyromitra esculenta

    A reddish-brown irregularly folded brain-like cap, not pitted, and when sliced lengthwise it is chambered and stuffed with cottony fibre rather than hollow.

    Size
    Cap 4–10 cm
    Where
    Conifer woods across North America and northern Europe, in spring.
    Risk
    Gyromitrin metabolises to monomethylhydrazine — rocket fuel. Toxicity varies by population and by individual, the vapour from cooking has poisoned people, and it can be fatal. It is eaten traditionally in parts of Scandinavia and that tradition should not be exported.

    In the record 14,847 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–May · most distinctive in April · mostly from Sweden check on GBIF

  9. Field mushroom

    Handle with care

    Agaricus campestris

    White cap, a thin ring, and gills that start bright pink and darken to chocolate brown. The spore print is dark brown, never white, and there is no sac at the base.

    Size
    Cap 4–10 cm
    Where
    Pasture and lawns across the northern hemisphere.
    Confused with
    Destroying angel, which is the same size and colour with white gills and a basal sac. Check gill colour and dig up the base every single time.
    Risk
    Some Agaricus species — the yellow-staining mushroom in particular — bruise chrome yellow at the stem base and smell of ink or phenol when cut, and cause severe stomach upset.

    In the record 17,437 georeferenced records · half of them Sep–Oct · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

  10. Shaggy ink cap

    Handle with care

    Coprinus comatus

    A tall white shaggy cylinder like a barrister's wig, standing on a hollow stem with a loose ring, which within a day dissolves itself into black ink from the bottom edge upward.

    Size
    Cap 5–15 cm tall
    Where
    Lawns, verges and disturbed ground across the northern hemisphere.
    Risk
    Edible when young and pure white, and must be cooked within hours. The related common ink cap (<em>Coprinopsis atramentaria</em>) causes a violent reaction if alcohol is taken within days of eating it.

    In the record 148,708 georeferenced records · half of them Oct–Oct · most distinctive in October · mostly from the Netherlands check on GBIF

  11. Giant puffball

    Handle with care

    Calvatia gigantea

    A white ball the size of a football with no stem and no gills, pure white and firm like marshmallow all the way through when sliced.

    Size
    20–70 cm across
    Where
    Meadows and woodland edge across North America and Europe.
    Confused with
    Amanita buttons, which are also white balls. Slicing vertically settles it: a puffball is uniform white throughout, while an Amanita button shows the outline of a cap, gills and stem inside.
    Risk
    Edible only while the interior is pure white. Any yellow, olive or brown discolouration means it has begun forming spores and it causes stomach upset.

    In the record 23,923 georeferenced records · half of them Sep–Oct · most distinctive in June · mostly from the Netherlands check on GBIF

  12. Honey fungus

    Handle with care

    Armillaria species

    Honey-brown caps with fine dark scales in dense clusters at the base of a living or dead tree, with a whitish ring and a white spore print. Black bootlace-like rhizomorphs under nearby bark.

    Size
    Cap 3–12 cm
    Where
    Across the northern hemisphere, parasitic on tree roots.
    Risk
    Eaten in some regions after thorough cooking, and it makes a substantial minority of people ill regardless. The bigger problem is that deadly galerina grows on the same wood and looks similar.

    In the record 102,072 georeferenced records · half of them Sep–Oct · most distinctive in November · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

  13. Oyster mushroom

    Pleurotus ostreatus

    Shelving fan- or oyster-shaped caps in overlapping tiers on dead hardwood, with gills running right down onto a short off-centre stem or no stem at all. Smells faintly of aniseed.

    Size
    Cap 5–20 cm
    Where
    On hardwood, especially beech and poplar, across the northern hemisphere.
    Confused with
    Various shelf fungi, most harmlessly. The lookalike worth knowing outside North America is the ghost fungus of Australia, which is toxic and bioluminescent.

    In the record 47,857 georeferenced records · half of them Nov–Jan · most distinctive in January · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  14. Chicken of the woods

    Handle with care

    Laetiporus sulphureus

    Overlapping shelves of vivid sulphur-yellow and orange with a suede-like surface and tiny yellow pores underneath, no gills, growing straight out of a trunk.

    Size
    Brackets 10–40 cm
    Where
    On oak and other hardwoods across North America and Europe.
    Risk
    Widely eaten, but a substantial minority of people react badly to it, and specimens from eucalyptus, conifers and yew have caused serious illness. Cook thoroughly and try a small amount first.

    In the record 122,547 georeferenced records · half of them Jul–Sep · most distinctive in June · mostly from the Netherlands check on GBIF

  15. Hen of the woods

    Grifola frondosa

    A large rosette of overlapping grey-brown fronds like ruffled feathers, growing from a branched white stalk at the foot of an oak, with white pores underneath. Called maitake.

    Size
    Clusters 20–60 cm
    Where
    At the base of oaks across North America, Europe and Japan, in autumn.

    In the record 23,986 georeferenced records · half of them Oct–Oct · most distinctive in October · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  16. Porcini and boletes

    Handle with care

    Boletus edulis and relatives

    A stout brown bun-shaped cap over a sponge of white-to-yellow pores, on a fat pale stem with a fine white net near the top. Flesh does not change colour when cut.

    Size
    Cap 8–25 cm
    Where
    Under conifers and oaks across the northern hemisphere.
    Confused with
    The bolete family is large and contains toxic members. The rough rule among foragers: avoid any bolete with red or orange pores, or whose flesh bruises immediately blue — a few good species do bruise blue, but the rule keeps beginners safe.

    In the record 76,997 georeferenced records · half of them Aug–Sep · most distinctive in August · mostly from Sweden check on GBIF

  17. Lion's mane

    Hericium erinaceus

    A white cushion hanging from a tree wound, covered in long soft downward-pointing spines like a mop. There is nothing else it can be confused with.

    Size
    10–30 cm
    Where
    On wounds in living hardwoods across North America, Europe and Asia.

    In the record 11,343 georeferenced records · half of them Oct–Nov · most distinctive in December · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  18. Turkey tail

    Trametes versicolor

    Thin flexible brackets in concentric bands of brown, tan, blue-grey and cream with a velvety surface, and a cream underside with tiny pores. Too tough to eat; used for tea.

    Size
    Brackets 3–10 cm
    Where
    On dead hardwood worldwide.
    Confused with
    False turkey tail, which has a smooth underside with no pores at all. Look underneath.

    In the record 197,063 georeferenced records · half of them Aug–Dec · most distinctive in March · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  19. Fairy ring champignon

    Handle with care

    Marasmius oreades

    Small tan caps with a low central bump, widely spaced pale gills, and a tough wiry stem that twists without snapping, arranged in an arc or ring on grass.

    Size
    Cap 2–5 cm
    Where
    Lawns and pasture across the northern hemisphere.
    Confused with
    Several toxic small brown lawn mushrooms grow in the same rings, including <em>Clitocybe</em> species containing muscarine. This is a genus for experienced foragers only.

    In the record 45,214 georeferenced records · half of them Aug–Oct · most distinctive in July · mostly from the Netherlands check on GBIF

  20. Green-spored parasol

    Can injure you

    Chlorophyllum molybdites

    A large white cap with coarse brown scales and a movable ring, in rings on watered lawns. The gills slowly turn dull green with age, and the spore print is green.

    Size
    Cap 7–30 cm
    Where
    Lawns across the southern and eastern United States, and increasingly northwards.
    Risk
    The most commonly eaten poisonous mushroom in North America, because it looks like the edible shaggy parasol and grows on suburban lawns. Causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea, occasionally requiring hospitalisation. The green spore print is the whole test.

    In the record 17,373 georeferenced records · half of them Jul–Sep · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  21. Sulphur tuft

    Handle with care

    Hypholoma fasciculare

    Dense clusters of sulphur-yellow caps on decaying wood, with gills that start yellow and become olive-green then purple-brown. Intensely bitter.

    Size
    Cap 2–6 cm
    Where
    On stumps and dead wood across the northern hemisphere.
    Risk
    Causes severe gastrointestinal illness. Frequently confused with honey fungus, which grows in the same places.

    In the record 119,456 georeferenced records · half of them Sep–Oct · most distinctive in November · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

  22. Inky cap and alcohol reaction

    Handle with care

    Coprinopsis atramentaria

    Grey-brown bell-shaped caps in clusters, dissolving into black ink with age. Similar to shaggy ink cap but grey and much smoother.

    Size
    Cap 3–7 cm
    Where
    Disturbed ground and buried wood across the northern hemisphere.
    Risk
    Contains coprine, which blocks alcohol metabolism. Eating it and drinking within three days causes flushing, palpitations and vomiting — the same mechanism as the drug disulfiram.

    In the record 26,824 georeferenced records · half of them Sep–Oct · most distinctive in April · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

  23. Amanita muscaria buttons and other white eggs

    Can injure you

    Amanita species, young

    A white or pale egg emerging from soil, which is how every Amanita starts and which looks exactly like a small puffball. Slice it vertically: an Amanita button contains the outline of a cap, gills and stem.

    Size
    3–6 cm
    Where
    Wherever Amanita species fruit.
    Risk
    This is the single most important cut a beginner can make. Every white ball gets sliced from top to bottom before anyone considers eating it.

    In the record 896,164 georeferenced records · half of them Sep–Oct · most distinctive in July · mostly from the Netherlands check on GBIF

  24. Russula

    Handle with care

    Russula species

    Brightly coloured caps — red, green, purple, yellow — with white gills and a white stem, and flesh so brittle the stem snaps cleanly like chalk instead of tearing into fibres.

    Size
    Cap 4–15 cm
    Where
    Woodland across the northern hemisphere.
    Confused with
    The green-capped ones are confused with the death cap, and that is exactly how several fatal poisonings have happened. Russulas have no ring and no basal sac.
    Risk
    The genus contains edible and sickening species that are not separable without expert knowledge. Treat as inedible.

    In the record 1,172,584 georeferenced records · half of them Jul–Sep · most distinctive in July · mostly from Sweden check on GBIF

  25. Blewit

    Handle with care

    Lepista nuda

    Lilac to violet throughout when fresh, fading to tan from the cap centre, with crowded gills and a pale pink spore print. Smells strongly of frozen orange juice.

    Size
    Cap 5–12 cm
    Where
    Leaf litter and compost across North America and Europe, in late autumn.
    Confused with
    Purple <em>Cortinarius</em> species, some of which are deadly and which have a rust-brown spore print and a cobwebby veil. The spore print separates them.

    In the record 37,449 georeferenced records · half of them Sep–Oct · most distinctive in November · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

  26. Cortinarius

    Can injure you

    Cortinarius species

    A cobwebby veil of fine fibres between cap edge and stem in young specimens, leaving a rusty fibrous zone on the stem as spores drop. Rust-brown spore print.

    Size
    Cap 3–12 cm
    Where
    Woodland across the northern hemisphere; the largest mushroom genus there is.
    Risk
    Several species contain orellanine, which destroys the kidneys with a delay of two to three weeks — long enough that patients do not connect the two. Treat the whole genus as off limits.

  27. Puffball, common

    Handle with care

    Lycoperdon perlatum

    A pear-shaped white ball covered in small conical spines, on a short stalk, which develops a hole at the top and puffs brown spore dust when pressed.

    Size
    3–7 cm
    Where
    Woodland floor across the northern hemisphere.
    Risk
    Edible only when pure white inside. Once the interior yellows it is spores, and it causes stomach upset. And still slice every one vertically to rule out an Amanita button.

    In the record 81,767 georeferenced records · half of them Sep–Oct · most distinctive in September · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

  28. Earthball

    Handle with care

    Scleroderma citrinum

    A hard yellow-brown ball with a thick warty rind that is firm rather than soft, and — the test — cut it open and the interior is solid purple-black even when young.

    Size
    3–10 cm
    Where
    Woodland across the northern hemisphere.
    Confused with
    True puffballs, which are white and soft inside. The black interior is decisive and there is no ambiguity.
    Risk
    Causes severe gastrointestinal illness. One of the most common poisonings in Europe because it grows beside edible puffballs.

    In the record 81,700 georeferenced records · half of them Jul–Sep · most distinctive in August · mostly from the Netherlands check on GBIF

The four checks that come before anything else

Mycologists do not identify from a picture of a cap. They work through a fixed sequence, and the first three steps take longer than looking but eliminate almost everything dangerous.

  1. Dig the whole thing up. Not cut — dug. The most important diagnostic feature in the entire fungal kingdom is the volva, the membranous sac at the base of an Amanita, and it is usually below ground. A mushroom picked by cutting the stem has thrown that information away.
  2. Look at the underside. Gills, pores, teeth, blunt ridges or nothing. This is the first branch of every key and it is unambiguous.
  3. Take a spore print. Cap face down on paper — half white, half black — covered with a bowl, left for two to twelve hours. The colour of the powder is a fixed character that no photograph shows and that settles several dangerous confusions on its own.
  4. Note what it is growing on and with. Wood, soil, grass, dung, a living tree, and which tree species. Many fungi are restricted to one host, and substrate is treated as a diagnostic character rather than a note.

The spore print is the step most often skipped and the one that pays the most. It is the whole difference between a shaggy parasol and the green-spored parasol that sends people to hospital every summer in the American South, and between a blewit and a deadly Cortinarius.

The rules that will get you killed

Every one of the following is repeated widely and every one is false. They matter because they are the beliefs that show up in poisoning case reports.

Persistent folk tests for mushroom edibility, and why each fails.
The claimWhy it is wrong
A silver spoon turns black in a poisonous mushroomNo mushroom toxin reacts with silver. Amatoxins are peptides and do nothing to metal
Poisonous mushrooms taste badDeath cap survivors consistently report it tasted good. Amatoxins are tasteless
If animals eat it, people canSquirrels, slugs and deer eat death caps without harm. Mammalian tolerance varies enormously
Cooking destroys the poisonAmatoxins are stable to 260 °C, to drying and to freezing. Cooking helps for a few species and does nothing for the fatal ones
Poisonous mushrooms peel differently, or bruise blueNeither correlates with toxicity. Several excellent boletes bruise blue instantly
Mushrooms growing on wood are safeDeadly galerina grows on rotting wood and contains the same toxin as the death cap
An app identified it, so it is fineImage classifiers routinely confuse Amanita species with edible look-alikes, and a false positive here is fatal. Every major mycological society advises against using them for edibility

The one rule that does hold: if you are not certain, you do not eat it. There is no partial credit in mycology, and there is no wild mushroom worth the risk of getting it wrong.

The Amanita problem

Around 90% of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide involve amatoxins, and the great majority of those are Amanita phalloides and the destroying angels. What makes them so lethal is not potency alone but the shape of the illness.

The course runs in three phases. Six to twenty-four hours after eating, violent vomiting and diarrhoea begin — long enough after the meal that people blame something else. On day two the symptoms clear and the patient feels better; some are discharged from hospital at this point. On day three to five the liver fails. Treatment is supportive, silibinin and N-acetylcysteine are used without a strong evidence base, and the definitive treatment is a liver transplant.

The consequences for identification practice are specific:

  • Dig up every mushroom you intend to identify. The volva is the character, and it is buried.
  • Slice every white ball vertically. Amanita buttons look exactly like puffballs and the section shows the developing cap and gills inside.
  • Treat white gills plus a ring plus a basal sac as a death cap, full stop, whatever colour the cap is. Death caps range from green to yellow to nearly white.
  • If anyone has eaten an unknown mushroom, call poison control at once and do not wait for symptoms. Keep the specimen, including anything left in the pan or the bin — identification changes the treatment.

Death caps are also spreading. They are native to Europe and arrived in North America on the roots of imported ornamental oaks and chestnuts; they are now well established in California, the Pacific Northwest and parts of the Northeast, and the range is still expanding. A regional guide printed thirty years ago may say they are absent from your area and be wrong.

How to take a spore print

Five minutes of work, several hours of waiting, and it is the single most informative thing you can do to an unknown mushroom at home.

  1. Cut the stem off flush with the cap.
  2. Place the cap gill-side or pore-side down on a sheet of paper that is half white and half black, so both pale and dark spores show.
  3. Put a drop of water on the cap to keep it moist and cover it with a bowl or glass.
  4. Leave it two to twelve hours somewhere still and out of a draught.
  5. Lift the cap straight up and read the colour of the powder in daylight.

The colours group into a small number of categories that carry a lot of information. White or cream covers Amanita, Russula, Lactarius, oyster mushrooms and most wood-rotters. Pink means Entoloma or Lepista. Rust-brown means Cortinarius, Galerina or Gymnopilus — three genera that between them contain most of the remaining deadly species. Chocolate brown means Agaricus. Black or purple-black means the ink caps and their relatives. Green means Chlorophyllum molybdites and effectively nothing else, which is why it is the definitive test for the most-eaten poisonous mushroom in North America.

Learning to forage properly

Every experienced forager learned the same way, and it is not from a book alone.

Join a mycological society. Most regions of North America and Europe have one, they run identification walks and monthly forays, and members bring specimens for named experts to examine. In the United States the North American Mycological Association lists local clubs; in the UK the British Mycological Society does the same. This is by an enormous margin the fastest and safest way to learn.

Start with the foolproof four. Most teachers begin with species that have no dangerous look-alikes: chicken of the woods, giant puffball (sliced), morels (sliced) and chanterelles. Learn those completely, including their look-alikes, before adding a fifth.

Keep a specimen of everything you eat. Set one aside uncooked in the fridge for 48 hours. If anyone becomes ill, that specimen is what allows a hospital to identify the toxin. This is standard practice among serious foragers and it costs nothing.

Never combine identification with any other pursuit. A substantial share of amatoxin poisonings in North America occur among people hunting psilocybin mushrooms, because Galerina marginata grows in the same habitat and looks similar.

Try a small amount first, alone. Even confirmed edible species make some people ill — chicken of the woods, honey fungus and morels all have well-documented individual reactions. Eat a small cooked portion, wait a day, and do not introduce two new species at once.

What this key is for

28 entries covering the fungi that come up in questions: the killers, the common sickeners, the well-known edibles, and the pairs that get confused. Estimates of global fungal diversity run into the millions of species, several thousand of which fruit visibly in any temperate region, and no key of this size is a field guide.

The specific things this tool is good for: telling you when a mushroom in your garden is worth worrying about with a dog or a child around, telling you which family you are looking at, and telling you which look-alike to check next. The specific thing it is not for is deciding to eat anything.

If you want an identification confirmed, photograph the cap top, the underside, the whole stem including the dug-up base and a vertical section, note the tree species nearby, take a spore print, and post it all to a regional mycology group. Mycologists are generous with their time and consistently blunt about when a photograph is not enough — which is itself the most useful thing they teach.

What the observation record shows

Every entry in this key that carries a scientific name is matched against GBIF, the international register of biodiversity records, and against iNaturalist. That puts a hard number behind 26 of the 28mushrooms here: 1,483,693 georeferenced records across the 22 entries that resolve to a single species, spanning 20 families, the oldest of them collected in 1996. The snapshot was taken on 2026-09-04.

That evidence is not spread evenly, and it is worth knowing before you trust a narrow result. The five best-recorded mushrooms in this key hold 61% of all the records between them: Fly agaric alone accounts for 316,522, while Jack-o'-lantern has 2,597. A common thing is common in the data too, so when a filter narrows to one frequent entry and one rare one, the frequent one is usually the answer — and the record count is the quickest way to see which is which. The same skew applies geographically: 23% of these records come from the Netherlands, so the key describes what is reported there far better than it describes anywhere else.

When these are actually reported

Share of 1,455,983 GBIF records of 22 mushrooms by month of the year, against the seasonal average for all Orvik records 0%9%18%26%35%JFMAMJJASOND■ share of records — vs. all Orvik records 1.0 = the seasonal average
Half of the 1,455,983 georeferenced records for these 22 mushrooms fall in September–October alone. The bars are the raw share by month, which mostly measures when people go looking; the line divides each month by the baseline for every species in every Orvik key, so a value above 1.0 means these mushrooms are reported more than the season alone explains, and it peaks in October. Source: GBIF, snapshot 2026-09-04.

Half of every record for this group falls in September–October. A raw month count measures two things at once — when the organism is about, and when people are outdoors with a camera — and the second effect is large enough to give almost anything a summer peak. The line on the figure divides each month by the baseline for every species in every Orvik key, which answers a different question: relative to when people record anything at all, when are these mushrooms recorded? Values above 1.0 are the months that belong to this group rather than to the season. On that measure 10 of the 22mushrooms here peak outside the warm half of the year — Fly agaric, Turkey tail, Shaggy ink cap among them. Those are the ones a seasonal rule of thumb gets wrong.

Records behind each entry

Sorted by how much evidence exists, not by how likely you are to meet one. The peak month is the effort-adjusted figure, and it is left blank wherever the sample is too thin for the month-to-month wobble to mean anything.

GBIF and iNaturalist record counts for the 26 named mushrooms in this key, snapshot 2026-09-04. Rows above species rank aggregate everything beneath them and are not comparable with the rest. Free to reuse with a link to this page.
EntryAccepted nameRankGBIF recordsResearch-gradeHalf fall inPeak, adjustedMost reported from
Fly agaricAmanita muscaria (L.) Lam.species316,522158,146Oct–OctOctoberthe Netherlands
Turkey tailTrametes versicolor (L.) Lloydspecies197,063225,658Aug–DecMarchthe United States
Shaggy ink capCoprinus comatus (O.F.Müll.) Pers.species148,70884,775Oct–OctOctoberthe Netherlands
Chicken of the woodsLaetiporus sulphureus (Bull.) Murrillspecies122,54784,169Jul–SepJunethe Netherlands
Sulphur tuftHypholoma fasciculare (Huds.) P.Kumm.species119,45663,277Sep–OctNovemberthe United Kingdom
Puffball, commonLycoperdon perlatum Pers.species81,76758,270Sep–OctSeptemberthe United Kingdom
EarthballScleroderma citrinum Pers.species81,70039,905Jul–SepAugustthe Netherlands
Porcini and boletesBoletus edulis Bull.species76,99734,614Aug–SepAugustSweden
Oyster mushroomPleurotus ostreatus (Jacq.) P.Kumm.species47,85792,997Nov–JanJanuarythe United States
Fairy ring champignonMarasmius oreades (Bolton) Fr.species45,21432,318Aug–OctJulythe Netherlands
BlewitLepista nuda (Bull.) Cookespecies37,449—Sep–OctNovemberthe United Kingdom
Death capAmanita phalloides (Vaill. ex Fr.) Linkspecies36,39713,622Sep–OctAugustthe Netherlands
Deadly galerinaGalerina marginata (Batsch) Kühnerspecies29,53328,287Sep–OctDecemberthe United States
Inky cap and alcohol reactionCoprinopsis atramentaria (Bull.) Redhead, Vilgalys & Moncalvospecies26,824—Sep–OctAprilthe United Kingdom
Hen of the woodsGrifola frondosa (Dicks.) Grayspecies23,98615,698Oct–OctOctoberthe United States
Giant puffballCalvatia gigantea (Batsch) Lloydspecies23,92322,252Sep–OctJunethe Netherlands
Field mushroomAgaricus campestris L.species17,43720,882Sep–OctJulythe United Kingdom
Green-spored parasolChlorophyllum molybdites (G.Mey.) Masseespecies17,37354,932Jul–SepJulythe United States
False morelGyromitra esculenta Pers. ex Fr.species14,84710,254Apr–MayAprilSweden
Lion's maneHericium erinaceus (Bull.) Pers.species11,34316,271Oct–NovDecemberthe United States
Destroying angelAmanita bisporigera G.F.Atk.species4,15318,343Jun–AugJulythe United States
Jack-o'-lanternOmphalotus olearius (DC.) Singerspecies2,5973,156Oct–NovNovemberSpain
RussulaRussula Pers.genus1,172,5841,282,167Jul–SepJulySweden
Amanita muscaria buttons and other white eggsAmanita Dill. ex Boehm., 1760genus896,164—Sep–OctJulythe Netherlands
Honey fungusArmillaria (Fr.) Staudegenus102,072159,299Sep–OctNovemberthe United Kingdom
MorelMorchella Dill. ex Pers.genus44,72875,179Mar–AprAprilthe United States

This table is assembled from open data and is free to reuse with a link back to this page. The snapshot behind every Orvik key is published as one downloadable file on the open field data page, with each source's licence terms.

Questions people ask about this

Can an app safely tell me if a mushroom is edible?

No, and every major mycological society says so explicitly. Image classifiers confuse Amanita species with edible look-alikes, and the cost of one false positive is a liver transplant. Apps and keys are useful for narrowing possibilities and for learning what to check next; edibility decisions require the whole specimen in hand, a spore print, and in practice a person who knows the local fungi.

How do I take a spore print?

Cut the stem off flush, place the cap gill-side down on paper that is half white and half black, add a drop of water on top, cover with a bowl, and leave it two to twelve hours out of a draught. Lift the cap straight up and read the powder colour in daylight. It is the single most informative home test there is and it settles several dangerous confusions on its own.

Does the silver spoon test work?

No. No mushroom toxin reacts with silver — amatoxins are peptides and do nothing to metal. The same goes for every other folk test: poisonous mushrooms do not taste bad, animals eating them proves nothing, and cooking does not destroy amatoxins, which are stable to 260 °C and to drying and freezing.

What is the most dangerous mushroom?

The death cap, Amanita phalloides, with the destroying angels close behind. Together they cause around 90% of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide. Half a cap can kill an adult, symptoms begin only after 6 to 24 hours, appear to resolve on the second day, and liver failure follows on the third. There is no antidote and the definitive treatment is transplantation.

Are mushrooms growing on wood safer than ones on the ground?

No. Deadly galerina, Galerina marginata, grows in clusters on rotting wood and contains the same amatoxins as the death cap in a mushroom the size of a thumbnail. Jack-o'-lantern and sulphur tuft also grow on wood and both cause severe illness. Substrate is a useful identification character, not a safety rule.

My dog ate a mushroom in the garden. What should I do?

Call a vet or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center on (888) 426-4435 immediately, and collect a specimen — ideally the whole thing including the buried base — in a paper bag rather than plastic. Do not wait for symptoms: with amatoxin-containing species the treatable window closes before the animal looks ill. Lawn mushrooms are usually harmless but the exceptions are the ones that matter.

How do I tell a chanterelle from a jack-o'-lantern?

Look at the underside and at how it grows. A chanterelle has blunt forking ridges that run down the stem and grows singly out of soil; a jack-o'-lantern has true knife-edged gills and grows in dense overlapping clumps on wood or at the base of a stump. Chanterelles smell of apricot. Jack-o'-lanterns cause hours of violent vomiting and are the single most common chanterelle mistake.

Still not sure? Point a camera at it

A filter narrows mushrooms down to a shortlist. Orvik reads the photo itself and names the species, with the look-alikes ranked underneath so you can check the call yourself.

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