Welcome to Mushroom World
Welcome to Mushroom World, your resource for mushroom information. On this site you can search for mushrooms in our database and read about them. You can use this information to identify fungus, but do not eat mushrooms you are not 100% certain of. Use many resources, and be skeptical of your own conclusions. It takes normally years of experience to be able to identify mushrooms reliably. The responsibility for the identification is yours; the site takes no responsibility for damage caused by wrong identifications. Please read the disclaimer.
Browse the database
You can browse the database from the alphabetical list or by going directly to the mushroom records which are listed under the categories poisonous, inedible and edible. You can also search the database based on mushroom name or some property.
Help identifying a mushroom
If you know how a mushroom looks, but need help to identify it, try our Mushroom identification helper. You can browse mushroom pictures there and perhaps find a match.
If this site cannot help you, we recommend mushroomobserver.org, which is a community site for mushroom identifications.
Today's Mushroom
Today's mushroom is Lactarius helvus (Poison Lactarius). The mushroom is Poisonous. It grows in North America, Europe.
Description: Lactarius helvus, also known as Poison Lactarius, is a medium-sized or large agaric that has a spicy smell, similar to curry. It has a cinnamon-brown cap, buff gills and excluding colourless, transparent milk. It grows solitary or in scattered groups on soil.
Cap velvety, initially slightly convex, becoming funnel-shaped as it matures and has a faint zonate (bull's-eye) pattern, beige or light grey at the margins and darkening toward the centre. Gills decurrent, first cream coloured, then darkening to ochre-yellow. The flesh is white or beige, often pink-tinged. Stem is similarly colored as the cap or more reddish brown, more or less equal. The mushroom has no ring.
Similar species Lactarius aquifluus is very similar in appearance and grows in North America.
Lactarius helvus on the MushroomExpert.Com Web site.
Dimensions: Cap 4-10 cm diameter; stem 3-6 cm tall * 1-2.3 cm diameter
If you are interested in this mushroom, look it up in our database. You can find more detailed pictures there.
