UK species guide
30 British fungi, written up the way you actually use them in the field: what it looks like, when it appears, where it grows, and what dangerous species it can be mistaken for.
Never eat a wild mushroom on the strength of a website alone. Some deadly species look very like good edibles. Check every feature, and get an expert opinion if there is any doubt at all.
Read the full foraging safety guidance.
Checking the weather across the UK…
Showing 6 of 30 species
Brown Rollrim
Paxillus involutus
Once eaten widely in Europe, now known to cause a fatal immune reaction that builds up over repeated meals.
Deadly Webcap
Cortinarius rubellus
A modest orange-brown mushroom whose poison destroys the kidneys weeks after the meal.
Death Cap
Amanita phalloides
Responsible for the great majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide. Learn this one before anything else.
Destroying Angel
Amanita virosa
Pure white, elegant and lethal. The one to check for whenever you pick a white mushroom.
False Morel
Gyromitra esculenta
A spring lookalike for the morel with a lobed brain-like cap. Its toxin is related to rocket fuel.
Funeral Bell
Galerina marginata
A small brown mushroom on dead wood carrying the same toxins as the Death Cap.