Identifying wild mushrooms

The first step in being able to correctly identify mushrooms is knowing your way around a mushroom. You need to know what features to look for when you're looking at fungus. These features are explained in the visual appearance section.

The appearance of the mushroom is not the only consideration for identification, where the mushroom was found also needs to be taken into consideration. You need to be able to describe the habitat in which you find it.

Sometimes mushrooms have a distinctive Smell or Taste that can help to point the species.

A final test that can be done at home to confirm a field identification is to take a spore print. This is done to see the colour of the spores themselves.