Online mushroom identification

I've always wanted to go wild mushroom hunting but have never had the confidence to avoid killing myself by mistaking a poisonous type from a tasty one.

But I recently came across a rather splendid wild mushroom identification site, Rogers Mushrooms. It's well-designed and the photographs are extensive and beautiful, and there are mushroom recipes to try too.

The only problem with the Rogers Mushrooms site is, how do you access the net from the middle of a wood?

(This link comes via Ditch Monkey, aka Hugh Sawyer, who has a day job at Sotheby's but is living in a wood for a year to raise funds for the Woodland Trust.)

Comments

[andru]

tonight i saw 5 cone shaped mushrooms growing in my driveway...they werent ther a few hours before, but now theyre about 3 inches tall. they are white with dark spots, which may just be dirt. at first they seemed to be completely conical until i pushed one and saw that it was severly bell-shaped...what is it?

[Susan]

walking in cotswalds, spotted a small mushroom (3in total height), cap about 1 inch, with light brown gills on the top. \small perfectly round ring in the center,orangy. Looked like a tiny parasol.
can't find anything like it in various books and sites.

[gabrielle kaye]

I was reading a book and it was talking about a certain type of mushroom that could kill you in an hour called mycelluilem mudusoid or somthing like that.I didn't think it was real and I searched the web to see if it was real but I didn't find any results.Can you give me the answer?

[Lee J Coffey]

Ihave several p[ctures of a set of mushrooms,4"across the cap,base as wide as the cap,Cap appears as broken eggshells,lined in black.Found growing on the roadside , after an immense rain.possible identity as to species?

[eric m. beelitz]

need help, have unidentified mushrooms growing in back yard can you help?

they look like whitr cap mushrooms you would buy in store but they are softer and have black spots on them. they grow in clusters. anyone who could indentify send picture and email to my web address
thanks

[Joe LaBarbera]

I have something growing in my lawn. I'm not sure if it is a mushroom or something similar. Its dark gray in color and stays level with the ground. If you don't dig it up it keeps growing and resembles a Helmet. Its very hard when you step on it and difficult to dig out. There is more to it beneath the surface than at the surface. Can you identify it??? thank you

[GIna]

Hello, i dont know if you can help me, but i'll give it a shot. I was walking through the woods today with my dog, when she started rolling in something. So, i go over to check it out and i find this strange mushroom. It looks like and egg kindof and there was one near it popped. The one that had popped looked like... well a brain. And my god, did it stink!!!! Kindof like roadkill, actually. Anyway, if you know hwat this was, please let know. I'm very curious!!!!

[DOROTHEA ROESNER-HOESEL]

ENCLOSED IS A PICTURE OF THE MUSHROOMS IN QUESTION. I FOUND THEM GROWING ON GRAVEL UNDERNEATH A FIR TREE. SMELL AND TAST ARE MORE OR LESS NEUTRAL. CAN SOMEBODY IDENTIFY THEM?

[cindy]

My boyfriend and I just about 48 hours ago came across something neither of us have ever seen...small yellow colored mushrooms growing in our houseplant pot!!! They are growing in cute clusters which vary in size from extremely tiny to the biggest ones with their caps being about the size of a bottlecap. This plant is indoors, next to a few other plants(sage, spiderplant)-which don't have these weird mushrooms growing in their pots!?! We live in Tucson,AZ-so seeing wild mushrooms is rare in and of itself. Do you have ANY IDEA what the heck these guys could be?????? Thank you!

[Maryann]

Last week we were outside and saw a large lobster colored Mushroom or toadstool it had large black dots- when it started to deteriorate the black dots slit and it seemed the mushroom omitted the smell of something rotting. In the morning it was very "plump" as the day progressed it started to "deflate". This is in S. FL I have lived here all of my life, have gone out into the Everglades and have never seen anything like this.
I have a picture on my cell phone. Can you tell me what it was (it's gone now)? And it's attributes.
Thank you

[Laura]

We found a patch of very small, 7mm caps, very bright red mushrooms with bright red stems. We are located in eastern North Carolina. They are growing in our lawn. Can you help us identify?

[Michael]

I have a small group of huge mushrooms, nearly pure white, dome shaped. They look delicious, but are they. Can submit photos to anyone who can help.

[Mike Alexander]

I found two mushrooms in the woods that are solid white and look like and have the texture of a volleyball.
It is attached at the ground and one is as large as a volley ball feeling solid. The other is bigger than a softball.

[Terrica]

This mushroom is growing along the pines in my front yard in Minnesota, can you indentify it?

[klara]

Hi,

I found a mushroom in my new garden, (have just moved house) and I'm thinking of growing them, because the conditions here are just perfect for mushrooms (shady and moist), but I haven't been able to find out whether it is an edible mushroom or not.
It's cap is smooth, very nice and shiny light brown in colour. The thickest bit of the cap is 2.5 cm above the stalk and gets thiner towards the outsede. the diameter is about 8cm. It has light gills (not the spongy tipe, the oter one..) The stalk is quite thick and short: about 2 cm wide and 4 cm long and is a little bit purley. Has no annulus.
Can you tell me whether it's edible or point me in the right direction to find out please.

Many thanks,

Klara

[Mary Roughwood]

I live in the woods at about 2000 ft elevation. The other day we went to harvest our fingerling potatoes and found they have a strange black, crusty, very mushroomy smelling fungus that looks like warts growing on all of them. Can anyone tell me what this is?

[Sue Hussey]

I found some large cooper topprd mushrooms with ared underneath, what are these?

[Sara]

I found these mushrooms in my yard. They haven't been here the last 7 years. They are a redish-orangish color, about 4-5" tall but not even an inch wide. The cap is brown and it looks like melted chocolate. It is a wet substance & flies & other insects are attracted to it. The body also looks like a sponge and kinda feels the same or like styrofoam. Befor they sprout it looks like a small egg in the ground, about an inch in size. I'm in KC,MO. It is very odd.

[Barbara Cardiello]

I just found the same type of mushrooms that Sara did. They are redish-orange and about 4-5" tall. The cap is brown and looks like melted chocolate. Can you please tell me what these are and what I should do with them. I live in Burlington Cty, NJ.

Barbara

[bailey]

i have a slimy mushroom and it is brown on the top and has a white stem. i live in vermont...

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=684620160]

i was walking trough the woods and saw this mushroom, i think, on the ground. it was about 3 inches high all read except for the top which was just a ball with some black spots i guess, i'm not sure what this is, please help

[Mark Tayloe]

Looking for an id on a mushroom growing in my yard. Orange, very rank smell (like something dead)with three ribbins growing upward into an arch about 1/4 " wide each and overall heigth of 3-4 inches. Any idea?

[Herman and Lenna Leo]

Today we discovered a type of fungi that was red or deep orange. When it was gently touched it broke off at the base and was a hollow tube growing out of the ground. I called it cone shaped, but actually it looked like a steer horn that had arounded tip and went from pale yellow orange to dark reddish orange at the top. There was only the one. What can it be?

[Davidarthurkendall]

I found a mushroom growing in my yard this morning that I actually thought was a dead animal at first, or brain matter. Can anyone tell me what it is ???? Here is a link to my facebook album where it is
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=129187990490300&set=a.108449522564147.13406.100001972985938&type=1&theater
Thank you

[NC_Sue]

I found a really cool fungus (I think) in a shady moist woods the other day. It looks like a red rose, low to the ground. I posted a picture of it here:
http://acts17verse28.blogspot.com/2011/05/few-pix-from-past-week.html

Can you tell me what it is? I'd appreciate it if you'd leave a comment for me there.