Field Guide

Mushrooms

Showing 1 - 10 of 16 results
Media
a row of little brown, umbrella-shaped mushrooms along a decaying log
Species Types
Scientific Name
Various species of confusingly similar mushrooms
Description
Like the LGBs (“little gray birds”) of the birdwatchers, this is a catchall category. It includes all the small to medium-sized, hard-to-identify brownish mushroom with spores of all colors. There are many hundreds of species that fit this description!
Media
Photo of two ash tree boletes, tan pored mushrooms, one overturned showing pores
Species Types
Scientific Name
Boletinellus merulioides
Description
The ash tree bolete is a pored mushroom with a brownish, wavy cap, an off-center stalk, and clearly defined pores. It grows scattered on the ground near ash trees.
Media
Two-colored Bolete
Species Types
Scientific Name
Boletus bicolor
Description
The two-colored bolete has a rose red cap that is sometimes yellowish toward the margin. The underside has tiny yellow pores, and the stalk is reddish yellow; all parts slowly bruise blue. Grows singly or in groups of up to several, on the ground under oaks.
Media
Photo of two Frost's boletes, red mushrooms with pores, at different angles
Species Types
Scientific Name
Boletus frostii
Description
Frost’s bolete has a blood red cap with red pores and a red, webbed stalk; all parts bruise blue. It grows scattered on the ground in oak woods.
Media
Photo of two pallid boletes, tan mushrooms, one upturned to show pores under cap
Species Types
Scientific Name
Boletus pallidus
Description
The pallid bolete has a pale cream to buff cap and stalk and pale cream-yellow pores. It grows singly or in groups of up to several, on the ground in oak woods.
Media
Photo of an old man of the woods, a grayish, pored mushroom with a shaggy cap
Species Types
Scientific Name
Strobilomyces floccopus
Description
The old man of the woods has a grayish black, shaggy cap with grayish pores and a grayish black, shaggy stalk. It usually grows singly, on the ground in mixed hardwood forests.
Media
Photo of violet-gray bolete, purplish capped mushroom with pores beneath cap
Species Types
Scientific Name
Tylopilus plumbeoviolaceus
Description
The violet-gray bolete has a large, violet-gray cap with cream-pink pores, and a violet stalk that is sometimes webbed. It grows scattered on the ground in mixed woods.
Media
Chicken of the Woods
Species Types
Scientific Name
Laetiporus sulphureus
Description
Sulfur-colored chicken of the woods is an edible fungus with layered, fan-shaped, fleshy caps that are orange on top and sulfur yellow below. It grows in overlapping clusters on stumps, trunks, and logs of dead or dying deciduous trees, and on living trees and buried roots.
Media
Photo of lobster mushroom, which is orange-yellow and finely bumpy
Species Types
Scientific Name
Hypomyces lactifluorum
Description
In a lobster mushroom, the cap, gills, and stalk of a host mushroom are covered by a finely bumpy, vivid orange to orange-red layer of mold. The gills of the host mushroom can be entirely obscured by the parasite.
Media
Photo of hen of the woods, large round mass of grayish mushrooms
Species Types
Scientific Name
Grifola frondosa
Description
Looking like a ruffled chicken, the edible hen of the woods mushroom grows like large circular bouquet of spoon-shaped caps, each grayish brown on top and white beneath, emerging from a branching, whitish base. It grows on the ground at the base of oak trees.
See Also
Media
Photo of several pinesap plants showing multiple flowers per stalk.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Monotropa hypopitys
Description
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.
Media
Picture of a patch of filamentous green algae floating in a stream.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Cladophora, Pithophora, and Spirogyra spp., and others
Description
Filamentous green algae forms green, cottony masses that are free-floating or attached to rocks, debris, or other plants.
Media
Photo of several Indian pipe plants with flowers, rising out of leaf litter.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Monotropa uniflora
Description
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..