Welcome to Mushroom World
Step into the enchanting world of fungi with Mushroom World – your trusted companion for learning about mushrooms.
Whether you're a curious beginner or a seasoned nature enthusiast, our site provides clear, accessible information and beautiful images to help you better understand and appreciate the mushrooms you encounter.
If you're curious about what fungi actually are, and how they differ from plants and animals, be sure to visit our what are fungi? page for an easy-to-understand explanation.
With thousands of mushroom species known to science, we've chosen to focus on the most common and easily recognisable ones. Each entry includes helpful descriptions, identification tips, and high-quality images, and we’re always working to expand our collection with new species and updated content.
Come and explore the wonders of mushrooms with us. We hope you find our site informative, inspiring, and a valuable resource on your journey of mushroom discovery.
What you can do on Mushroom World
Browse the database
Explore mushrooms from the alphabetical list or search by name or properties.
Identify a mushroom
Know some characteristics but not the name? Use our mushroom identification helper to narrow it down.
New to identification? Start with identification basics.
Test your knowledge
Try our identification quiz and see how many mushrooms you recognise. Each run gives you new questions.
Upload your photos
Have good mushroom photos to share? Use the upload form and we will see if we can include them on the site.
Today's Mushroom
A quick highlight from our database
Today's mushroom is Hygrocybe chlorophana (Golden Waxcap). It grows in Europe, (North America).
Dimensions: Cap 2-4 cm diameter, stem 2-6.5 cm tall * 0.2-0.3 cm thick
Description:
Hygrocybe chlorophana, also known as Golden Waxcap, is a small to medium-sized agaric with a bright lemon-yellow to orange-yellow cap, pale yellow waxy gills and a similarly coloured slender stem. The fruitbody does not blacken when bruised or with age. Hygrocybe chlorophana is most commonly found in old, unimproved, closely cropped grassland such as pastures, lawns, parkland and churchyards, although in some parts of its range it also occurs in woodland. It usually fruits from late summer through autumn.
Cap smooth and distinctly viscid or slimy in damp weather, initially convex or domed and later becoming broadly umbonate, flattened or nearly flat. It is bright lemon-yellow to golden yellow, sometimes with orange tones and occasionally reddish towards the centre. The cap flesh is thin and yellow. Gills waxy, broad and fairly distant, yellow at first and becoming paler lemon-yellow with age. They are adnate to narrowly attached to the stem. Stem smooth, slender and cylindrical, sometimes slightly compressed or grooved, and coloured similarly to the cap. It is moist to viscid when damp and has no ring. Spore print white.
Microscopic Features: The spores are ellipsoidal, sometimes slightly constricted or with one side concave, measuring about 7-9 x 4-5.5μm. They are smooth and inamyloid. The gill trama is regular, with long narrow elements, and the pileipellis forms an ixotrichoderm with gelatinised outer hyphae.
Hygrocybe chlorophana on the www.first-nature.com web site.
Hygrocybe flavescens on the MushroomExpert.Com web site.
If you are interested in this mushroom, look it up in our database for more detailed photographs and additional information.
Many mushrooms are poisonous, and some can be lethally toxic. Distinguishing between edible and poisonous mushrooms can be very challenging. Therefore, we strongly advise against consuming wild mushrooms. This website does not contain any information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms.
Although efforts have been made to ensure accuracy on this website, the information may contain errors and omissions. Therefore, all content provided is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be relied upon or used as a basis for consuming any plants or mushrooms.
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