Welcome to Mushroom World

Welcome to Mushroom World, your resource for mushroom information. This site contains information and images of mushrooms found mainly in Europe. You can use this information to identify fungus, but if you intend to eat the mushrooms you identify, never rely on one source for mushroom identification, and never eat any wild mushroom until an expert mycologist has checked your identification.

Mushroom World is not intended to be an identification guide for edible mushrooms. You should learn to collect fungi for the table with the help of experienced collectors and a good field guide. Please read the Guide To Picking Mushrooms and the poisoning disclaimer.

There are thousands of different mushroom species, so we have tried to limit those we list to the most common ones. New species are also continuously added to the site.

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.

Knowing poisonous mushrooms is always important; especially if you pick mushrooms, so take some time to study the poisonous mushrooms.

Help identifying a mushroom

If you know the characteristics of a mushroom, 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. There are also many Facebook groups for mushroom identifications like the Mushroom Identification - public group.

Identification Quiz

We have also created a quiz where you can test how good you are at identifying fungi. You can repeat the quiz as many times as you want, each time with new questions.

Today's Mushroom

Today's mushroom is Morchella elata (Black Morel). The mushroom is Edible. It grows in North America, Europe.

Description: Morchella elata, also known as Black Morel, is like most members of the genus a popular edible fungus and is sought by many mushroom hunters. It has a conical cap with distinct black ridges and brown to smoky-grey pits. The stem is white with a rough, mealy or granular surface and hollow center. The mushroom fruits in spring.

Fruiting body is yellowish-brown, with darker parallel longitudinal ribs that are connected to form honeycomb-like pits; while conical, it tapers downward into a creamy-white stem which is more or less equal along its length. The flesh is white, brittle, thin and hollow.

Similar species include Morchella esculenta which is yellow with pale ribs along the length of its cap. The mushroom can also be confused with poisonous Gyromitra species, of which the deadly poisonous Gyromitra esculenta is one. It lack the pitted cap and has a chambered, rather than hollow, stem.

Morchella elata on the www.first-nature.com web site.

Dimensions: 2-4 cm diameter * 5-15 cm tall

If you are interested in this mushroom, look it up in our database. You can find more detailed pictures there.