Mushroom Identification Tips: Look Under the Cap

One of the easiest ways to begin learning about mushroom identification is to look under the cap.

Mushroom Resources Bolete Mushrooms Drying Mushrooms

Mushrooms, like all living organisms, are typed according to specific features.

The structure of the underside of a mushroom with a cap is one common field mark used to identify its order, family or genus. Generally mushrooms with caps have either gills, pores or teeth on the underside.

Bolete mushrooms, the common name given to mushrooms in the order Boletales, generally share the physical characteristic of having pores, rather than gills under the cap. Species in the genus boletus, which includes the King Bolete, are probably the best known.

The picture shows a bolete in the genus Suillus. Sometimes one or all Suillus species are referred to as Slippery Jacks because of the presence of a wet or sticky substance on the top of young specimens.

Mushroom identification during wet periods might make for problematic identification. Knowing that Suillus are also characterized as growing under coniferous trees and having a honeycomb shaped pore pattern helps with rainy day identification.

Mushrooms are commonly differentiated using a gills versus pores label. Cortinarius are gilled mushrooms, the largest genus of mushrooms in the Agaricales Order. With over one thousand species, any individual species field identification becomes difficult.

Some Cortinarius, like the one in the picture, are brightly colored. Because most species fade with age, color does not always serve as the primary identification tool.

The presence of a partial veil on young species, or the remains of the partial veil (annuls) on the stem, plus brown spores generally serve as the primary field identification guides.

A close-up picture of the gills in the picture shows the brown spores. The annuls or ring on the top of the stem is the remnant of the partial veil.

Toothed mushrooms get their name from the small spine or tooth like particles under the cap. They are not a scientific group of mushrooms, but a group of terrestrial and shelf mushrooms that share the tooth characteristic.

The picture on the left shows a ground growing toothed mushroom, probably Hydnum repandum, commonly known as the hedgehog mushroom.

© 2007. Patricia A. Michaels. All Rights Reserved.