Types of Mushrooms : In General

Mushrooms, the fruits of the fungi world, attract a diverse group of enthusiasts. People who enjoy a bit of color in their forest environment enjoy colorful mushrooms such as the purple cortinarius in the top picture.


The mushrooms discussed in this guide are not representative of the entire mushroom world. Rather, they represent some of the more prominent types of mushrooms found in fields and forests around the United States.

The listing is arbitrary, with boletes and polypores grouped separately. A variety of edibile and not edible species form the third group.

By far, when most people think mushroom, they also think edibility. Some species, Morels and Pacific Golden Chanterelle, are edible.

Other mushroom species are better left on the ground or trees. The polypores, for example, consists of five common, but normally inedible, shelf mushrooms found in woodlands across the United States. The Chicken of the Woods is the exception.

Fly Agaric is the lone poisonous mushroom on the list, notable for its red spotted cap. Since many more poisonous mushroom species exist in the larger mushroom population, please do not use any of the information presented here as the basis for picking and consuming wild mushrooms.

Mushroom identification entails more than the information conveyed by a picture and short description of any particular species.

A worst case scenario might entail someone picking an otherwise edible mushroom from an area saturated with pesticides or industrial poisons such as mercury.

If you plan to pick mushrooms, always pick with caution. The Mushroom Identification Tips article provides some beginner's information.

Regulations for both personal and commercial mushroom harvesting vary from place to place. Local arboretums, botanical gardens and government agencies often offer mushroom identification classes with greater detail on the what, where and when of mushroom picking in your area.