Field Guide

Mushrooms

Showing 21 - 30 of 31 results
puffball mushroom
Giant Puffball
Calvatia gigantea (Langermannia gigantea)
The giant puffball is a huge, white, smooth ball with a completely white interior that becomes yellowish green with age. It grows in open pastures, woods, and lawns.
Photo of pale chicken of the woods.
Pale Chicken of the Woods
Laetiporus cincinnatus
Pale chicken of the woods has layered, fan-shaped, fleshy caps that are orange to pinkish orange on top and white below. This edible fungus grows in overlapping clusters or rosettes on stumps, trunks, and logs of dead or dying deciduous trees, and on living trees and buried roots.
Photo of uprooted rooting polypore mushroom on pavement, showing cap.
Rooting Polypore
Polyporus radicatus
The rooting polypore has a scruffy, tough, yellowish-brown cap with whitish-yellow pores, and a stalk with a long, black, rootlike filament. It usually grows singly, on the ground near stumps or attached to buried roots.
Photo of a pigskin puffball.
Pigskin Puffball (Common Earthball)
Scleroderma citrinum (Scleroderma aurantium)
The pigskin puffball is a rounded, warted, yellowish brown ball with blackish purple flesh. It grows on the ground, on wood debris, and near trees in woods.
Photo of a Thiers amanita mushroom growing on a lawn.
Thiers Amanita
Amanita thiersii
Thiers amanita has a white, gilled cap, and the stem is large, white, sticky, and shaggy. It grows in lawns, pastures, and prairies, often in fairy rings.
Photo of a blusher, a tan gilled mushroom, showing injured spot turning rust red
Amanitas
Amanita spp. (about 600 species, worldwide)
This large group of mushrooms accounts for 90 percent of mushroom-related deaths, so every mushroom hunter should be familiar with amanitas. They contain one of the deadliest poisons found in nature!
orange mushroom growing off a tree stump.
Big Laughing Gym (Big Laughing Jim)
Gymnopilus junonius (formerly G. spectabilis)
Big laughing gym mushrooms are large, orangish yellow, and have a ring on the stalk. They grow in clusters on stumps and trunks of deciduous trees, on the ground, or over buried wood.
Photo of several deadly galerina mushroom caps, viewed from above.
Deadly Galerina
Galerina marginata (G. autumnalis)
The deadly galerina has a brownish, sticky cap, yellowish to rusty gills, and a ring on the stalk. It grows scattered or clustered on deciduous and coniferous logs.
Photo of common morels growing on forest floor
Morels
Morchella species
Favorites among Missouri wild edibles, true morels only appear in the spring. They're very hard to see, but that's part of the fun of hunting them. Learn to identify them, and you can enjoy the hunt, too.
Photograph of a half-free morel mushroom
Half-Free Morel
Morchella punctipes (formerly M. semilibera)
The half-free morel is an excellent edible mushroom. It's completely hollow. It has a honeycombed cap with brownish black ridges and yellowish brown pits. The bottom half hangs free from the whitish stalk.
See Also
Photo of several pinesap plants showing multiple flowers per stalk.
Pinesap (False Beech Drops)
Monotropa hypopitys
Pinesap is a plant that puts the "wild" in wildflower! It lacks chlorophyll, so its roots connect to fungi underground and absorb nutrients from the fungi.
Picture of a patch of filamentous green algae floating in a stream.
Filamentous Green Algae (Pond Scum)
Cladophora, Pithophora, and Spirogyra spp., and others
Filamentous green algae forms green, cottony masses that are free-floating or attached to rocks, debris, or other plants.
Photo of several Indian pipe plants with flowers, rising out of leaf litter.
Indian Pipe
Monotropa uniflora
Indian pipe lacks chlorophyll, so it is white, not green. Below ground, its roots join with fungi that connect to tree roots. This plant, then, takes nourishment indirectly from the trees.

About Mushrooms in Missouri

Mushrooms are a lot like plants, but they lack chlorophyll and have to take nutrients from other materials. Mushrooms are neither plants nor animals. They are in a different kingdom — the fungi. Fungi include the familiar mushroom-forming species, plus the yeasts, molds, smuts, and rusts.

Always be cautious when eating edible mushrooms. Be absolutely sure of the ID, and only eat a small amount the first time you try it to avoid a reaction..