Mushroom-Term Glossary

Acanthophysis -- see hyphidium

Aciculate -- Very slender, with sharp top, therefore needle-shaped

Acidulous -- Slightly acid.

Acrid -- Taste burning or peppery, in this program the description of 'acrid' is rendered as 'peppery'

Acula (plural aculae) -- Spine.

Aculeate -- Of cystidia, tapered so that only the very basal portion is relatively swollen, the entire cystidium being shaped like a spine, therefore spine-shaped; of spore, means having narrow spines

Acuminate -- Gradually narrowed to a point

Acute -- Pointed, sharp; less than a right angle

Adnexed -- Pertaining to the attachment of the fertile tissue (the gills, tubes, spines, etc.) to the stipe of the fungus in which the fertile tissue typically curves upwards towards the pileus of the fungus before attaching to the stipe.

Agaric -- A term commonly used to describe a fungus having a cap (pileus), gills (lamellae), and a stem (stipe), i.e., what most people would call a mushroom.

Agaricologist -- A person who studies gilled mushrooms

Agglutinated -- Surface fibrils or scales drawn together in clumps

Allantoid -- Sausage-shaped, tubular and slightly curved with rounded ends

Alliaceous -- Smelling or tasting like onions or garlic

Alveolate -- Surface of cap or spore with broad pits

Amanitin -- Same as amatoxin.

Amanitoid -- Like Amanita, with free or slightly adnexed gills, a volva, and a ring

Amatoxin -- Cyclic peptide found in Amanita and other genera that are very toxic

Ampullaceous -- Flask-shaped

Amygdaliform -- Almond-shaped

Anamorph -- The asexual reproductive manifestation of a fungus, characterized by asexual spores

Annular -- Resembling a ring or referring to a ring, as in an annular zone on stem

Annular zone -- a band of fibrils or gluten around stem, often becoming darkened by spores, normally derived from veil remnants, but too obscure to be a ring

Anthesis -- Point of development of fruiting body at which the fresh unexpanded cap is in "full flower", contains the features for identification, and is at the brink of spore release

Apex -- Top, highest part

Apical -- Near top

Apical pore -- Same as germ pore, not to be confused with apiculus, which is the other end of the spore

Apiculus -- Nipple-like projection; nipple-like projection on spore which corresponds to the area that was attached to the basidium, sometimes used to refer to a projection on the other end of the spore, same as hilar appendage and not to be confused with apical pore (germ pore)

Appendiculate -- Margin of cap fringed with hanging fragments of the veil; (of cystidium) having an appendage; (of a spore) having one or more setulae

Applanate -- Horizontally expanded, plane, flat

Arachnoid -- Cobweb-like

Arcuate -- Forming an arch; of gills, means that the middle of the lower edge of the gill is higher than its ends

Areolate -- Cracked in age,  The cap surface of just about any mushroom can become cracked in dry weather conditions, but some species typically develop cracked caps in normal weather conditions.

Armillarioid -- With attached gills, fleshy stem and ring

Ascending -- Refers to gills that curve upwards from the margin of the cap to the attachment at the stem, as in conic or unexpanded cap

Ascomycetes -- The Ascomycetes are fungi that produce their spores in little tubes called "asci" (the singular is "ascus"). The tubes are located on the spore-bearing surface of the mushroom. There are no mushrooms with gills, pores, or spore-bearing spines among the ascos. Morels, False Morels, and  Helvella, and species of cup Fungi are "ascos."

Ascomycota -- Pylum that includes the largest group of fungi, those that produces their spores in sacs called asci, but does not include any gilled mushrooms

Asperulate -- Of spores, appearing roughened with tiny points; or roughened with small warts

Asterostromelloid -- Type of  pellis found in Resupinatus composed of swollen terminal elements with short approximately perpendicular branches

Astringent -- Causing a contraction or pucker of the mouth membranes

Atomate -- A powdered surface consisting of minute shiny particles

Attenuate -- Gradually narrowed

Avellaneous -- Dull grayish brown, hazel-brown, or light gray-yellow-brown, or closer to drab, or gray tinged with pink 

Azonate -- Without zones, without concentric markings

Azure -- Sky Blue in color

Badious -- Dark red brown

Baeocystin -- An indole alkaloid (4-phosphoryloxy-N-methyltryptamine), closely related to and often found with psilocybin, possibly hallucinogenic with comparable effect to psilocybin

Bald -- No warts or hairs or raised scales, fibers or patches, same as glabrous and as used here equivalent to naked

Basal -- Near the base

Basal mycelium -- Fungal cells at the base of the stem, ranging from a few fibrils to a velvet layer

Basal tomentum -- Same as basal mycelium

Basidiocarp -- Fruiting body: the whole reproductive structure of a mushroom including cap, gills, and stem

Basidiole -- Immature basidium

Basidiome -- Fruiting body: the whole reproductive structure of a mushroom including cap, gills and stem

Basidiomycete -- Fungus belonging to Basidiomycetes

Basidiomycetes -- Class that includes most gilled mushrooms as well as chanterelles, tooth fungi, boletes, polypores, puffballs, bird's nests, jelly fungi etc.

Basidomycota -- Phylum that includes classes Basidiomycetes (includes most gilled mushrooms as well as chanterelles, tooth fungi, boletes, polypores, puffballs, bird's nests, jelly fungi etc.), Teliomycetes (rust fungi etc.), and Ustomycetes (smut fungi etc.)

Basidiospore -- Sexual spore, the usual spore produced on gills

Basidium -- A specialized sexual reproductive cell found in the fertile area of the hymenium of all Basidiomycetes, typically shaped like a baseball bat. A basidium possesses four slightly inwardly curved horns (sterigma) to which the basidiospores are attached. 

Basionym -- The earliest name of a taxon on which a later name has been founded

Bay -- Red-brown approaching but lighter than chestnut

Beige -- Light grayish yellowish brown

Bell-Shaped -- In the shape of a bell (like the Liberty bell), with rounded top and flaring lower edges

Benzo Brown -- Pale purplish brown, dark brownish, violaceous fuscous, in Ridgway 1912 gray brown with a pinkish tinge

Bibulous -- Of surface of cap, capable of absorbing moisture

Bicolorous -- Of Two colors

Bifurcate -- Divided into two branches of equal or unequal length

Bilateral -- Of gill tissue, same as divergent

Binding Hypha -- Thick-walled, narrow, highly branched non-septate hypha found only in trimitic tissue

Binomial -- Blackish brown, a warm dark brown color, like sepia, dark yellow-brown

Bister -- Blackish brown, a warm dark brown color, like sepia, dark yellow-brown

Bloom -- Minutely velvety or powdery surface

Bolete -- The common name for soft textured fungi which generally have pores instead of gills

Boletinoid  -- Pore Surface

Bone Brown -- Dark vinacious brown

Brachybasidiole -- Cell within the hymenium, which unlike the clubshaped basidioles enlarges to be round or elliptic in shape

Brittle -- Breaking easily, rigid and breaking with a snap; of stem, forms a sharp non-fibrous edge when broken

Broad -- When used of gills, refers to the height (depth) of the gill, which may be narrow, moderately broad or broad

Broadly Convex -- Of cap, convex but mostly flattened apart from downcurved margin, same as plano-convex

Broad-leaved -- Of trees that have leaves rather than needles

Brown Rot -- Carbonizing decay (cellulose-composing decay)

Brownish Drab -- Purple gray with slight brownish cast

Bruises -- Sometimes described the stem or the gills/pores may bruise on some species when handled.

Bryicolous -- Growing on or among mosses

Buckhorn Brown -- Dull yellowish brown

Buff -- A pale yellow toned with gray-brown, i.e. a dingy yellowish brown or very pale tan

Bulb -- A part shaped like the underground part of an onion or daffodil or similar plant

Bulbose -- Having a bulb or bulging area; of stem, with an enlarged base

Bulbous -- Refers to a bulbous like swelling at the base of the stem (stipe), often underground

Burnt Sienna -- Watery strong red-brown, dark orange brown

Butt Rot -- A rot confined to base or roots of a tree

Button -- Young fruiting body before it has opened up. An immature specimen. See Photo Below.

Byssoid -- Of mycelium, the condition when fine filaments spread from the base of the stem or fruiting body over substratum

Caesious -- Pale bluish-gray

Caespitose -- growing in close groups or close clusters or tufts (may be from a common base, but stems not joined together), see clustered

Calcareous -- with a hood; of spores, the outer layer separating to form a partial envelope or bag around spores, often with blisters or loose areas, as in some Galerina

Callus -- if the wall thinning at the site of a  germ pore forms a convex protrusion, this is called a callus

Cambium -- the cellular plant tissue, or tissue layer, responsible for the increase in girth of stems and roots 

Campanulate -- bell-shaped

Canaliculate -- of stem, furrowed or fluted

Candidous -- shining white

Canescent -- becoming densely covered with whitish or grayish down or becoming gray or hoary

Carpophore -- The complete fruit body of the fungus (i.e. cap, stem, gills, etc). Sporophore and sporocarp are other names also used

Capillitium -- modified threadlike branched hyphae in the spore mass of many Gasteromycetes

Capitate -- with a head or cap, abruptly enlarged at top

Capitellum -- small head

Capitulum -- a relatively small, spherical head or ball carbonizing decay a decay characterized by loss of cellulose and pentosans, leaving lignon in the form of a brown carbonous mass

Carinate -- of spores, furnished with a keel, boat shaped cartilaginous of stems: firm, tough and pliant (flexible), typically under 5mm in diameter at top of stem; having the consistency or appearance of cartilage; sometimes used even of fragile stems and implying brittle, not pliant

Cartridge buff -- pale yellowish

Catenate -- in chains or end to end series

Catenulate -- in chains or end to end series

Caulocystidium (plural caulocystidia) -- a sterile cell located on the stem

Cespitose -- Clustered mushrooms fused at the base. Also spelled caespitose. Growing in tufts or close clusters from a common base, but not grown together. See Photo Below.

Cellular -- composed of rounded cells, not threadlike ones

Cellulose -- a component of wood and plant cell walls made of glucose units

Ceraceous -- waxy

Chamois -- pale yellow

Chartreuse -- a color between green and lemon yellow, apple green, the color of Letharia (wolf lichen)

Chateura drab -- pale fuscous

Cheilocystidium (plural cheilocystidia) -- a sterile cell located on the edge of a gill

Cheilopseudocystidium (plural cheilopseudocystidia) --pseudocystidium located on the edge of a gill

Chestnut -- dark red-brown

Chlamydospores -- thick-walled asexual spores formed by breaking up of hyphae, that served to survive adverse conditions

Chrome-yellow -- intense or strong yellow; also can be deep orange or even reddish orange

Chrysocystidium (plural chrysocystidia) -- a type of cystidium that is highly refractive in once-dried tissue revived with a potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution, appearing as a yellowish brown shapeless mass within the cell

Cigar -- brown a dark blackish brown, like that of the tobacco found in a cigar

Ciliate -- having a fringe of hair-like ciliae; appearing fringed

Cinereous -- ash-colored, dirty white

Cinnabar -- deep bright rather orange red

Cinnamon -- a light brown with a little pink

Cinnamon-buff -- pale dingy tan

Cinnamon-drab -- violaceous brown with only a faint cinnamon tint, in Ridgway 1912 pinkish gray brown

Cirrate -- rolled round (curled) or becoming so

Citrine --a light greenish yellow

Citron yellow -- greenish yellow

Clamp -- same as clamp connection

Clamp connection -- small tubular elbow-like bypass across the walls between fungal cells, used to distinguish genera and species, functionally providing a bypass for one of two nuclei to insure their equal distribution in new cells. A special connection which forms at the junction of two adjacent fungal filamentous cells. A clamp connection looks something like the handle on a coffee cup. However, it may be flattened against the wall of the cells or may have a large opening (in this case a keyhole clamp) that allows the migration of nuclei between developing cells.

Class -- classification group above order but below phylum: suffix for the fungi is -mycetes

Clavate -- like a caveman's club; when used of stems, implies base is thicker and stem tapers upward; when used of cystidia, implies part that extends outward beyond the hymenium is thicker, same as club-shaped

Clay color -- clay color, resembling dull ochraceous-cinnamon-brown, in Ridgway 1912, closer to ocher or bright yellow brown

Clitocyboid -- resembling in general form a mushroom of the genus Clitocybe, typically with decurrent gills, fleshy-fibrous stem, and without a ring or volva

Close -- of gill spacing, nearly touching but with visible space between, intermediate between crowded and distant, the order being crowded, (subcrowded), (subclose), close, subdistant, distant

Club-shaped -- like a caveman's club; when used of stems, implies base is thicker and stem tapers upward; when used of cystidia, implies part that extends outward beyond the hymenium is thicker, same as clavate

Clustered -- growing together, either very close or from a common base

Cochleariform -- spoonlike in form

Collybioid -- resembling in general form a mushroom of the genus Collybia, typically with expanded caps (convex to broadly convex to flat) often with downcurved to incurved margin, cartilaginous or brittle stems not more than two or three times in length the diameter of the caps, without ring

Colors -- Always in Latin to be more specific and scientific, they are as follows:

aeruginose (verdigris-green, (malachite-green), the color of oxidized copper)

alutaceous (light leather colored, usually interpreted as light tan or medium yellow brown)

argillaceous (clay color, resembling ochraceous-cinnamon-brown)

avellaneous (pale pinkish gray); 

azure (Sky Blue in color)

badious (Dark red brown)

bay (Red-brown approaching but lighter than chestnut)

beige (Light grayish yellowish brown)

benzo brown (Pale purplish brown, dark brownish, violaceous fuscous, in Ridgway 1912 gray brown with a pinkish tinge)

binomial (blackish brown, a warm dark brown color, like sepia, dark yellow-brown)

bister (blackish brown, a warm dark brown color, like sepia, dark yellow-brown)

bone brown (Dark vinacious brown)

buckhorn brown (Dull yellowish brown)

buff  (A pale yellow toned with gray-brown, i.e. a dingy yellowish brown or very pale tan)

burnt sienna (Watery strong red-brown, dark orange brown)

cinereous (gray); 

ferruginous (rusty); 

fulvous (rusty brown or tawny); 

fuscous (grayish or grayish brown); 

glaucous (greenish); 

incarnate (flesh colored); 

isabella (yellowish brown to light olive brown); 

isabelline (yellowish brown to light olive brown); 

livid (grayish or bluish gray); 

lurid (usually "dark red";); 

lutescent (staining yellow); 

ochre (brownish yellow); 

ochraceous (brownish yellowish); 

olivaceous (olive--the greenish color)

rubescent (blushing reddish or pinkish); 

sordid (dingy); 

vinaceous (purplish red).

Columella -- a sterile column of tissue projecting into the spore mass of Gasteromycetes

Complex -- a cluster of taxonomically related similar species typified by a particular species, as in Conocybe tenera complex

Compressed -- of a stem, elliptical to flattened in cross section

Concentric -- having rings or circular zones

Conchate -- like an oyster shell

Concolorous -- having the same color

Confluent -- going towards the same point

Conglobate -- massed into a ball; (of the bases of stems), together making a fleshy mass

Conic -- shaped like a cone

Conic-campanulate -- of cap, bell-shaped with conic umbo

Conic-convex --  of cap, convex with conic umbo

Conidium (plural conidia) -- asexual fungal spores formed by the pinching off of hyphae

Conifer -- one-bearing tree

Connate -- of stem, joined by growth, e.g. when stems of several sporocarps are joined together, see clustered, caespitose

Connivent -- (of margin of cap) converging on the stem

Conspecific -- belonging to the same species

Context -- flesh of cap or stem (excluding the surface layer)

Convergent -- of gill hyphae, projecting inward and downward away from cap as seen in cross-section

Convex -- regularly rounded, domed, like an inverted bowl

Convex-campanulate -- of cap, bell-shaped with flattened or convex center

Convex-depressed -- of cap, convex with depressed center

Coprophilous -- growing on dung

Coriaceous -- leathery in texture

Cortina -- a web-like or silky veil extending from the cap margin to the stem in young mushrooms of certain species, soon disappearing or leaving remnants on stem or cap margin. A special type of annulus that is filamentous, resembling a spider web, attached from the margin of the cap (pileus) to the stem (stipe) when young. In age only a few fibers may remain on the cap margin or the stipe.

Cortinarioid -- having general shape of Cortanarius; applied to any mushroom with attached gills and cortinate or fibrollose partial veil

Cortinate -- with a cortina, weblike

Crawshay -- mycologist who designated color types for Russula spores, ranging from white (A) to deep ochre-orange (H)

Cracked -- surface having split in some way

Cream-buff -- a moderately dark buff

Crenate -- with notched edge or rounded teeth, scalloped

Crenulate -- finely scalloped

Crimson -- rich deep red inclining to purple

Crisped -- of gills, finely wavy

Crowded -- of gill spacing, very close, touching or with almost no space between, the order being crowded, (subcrowded), (subclose), close, subdistant, distant

Cucullate -- like a top hat; like a cowl or hood

Cuneate -- wedge-shaped

Cupulate -- cup-shaped

Cup -- The description given to the saucer shape of the Ascomycetes group

Cuspidate -- sharp, pointed

Cuticle -- the cap skin or surface layer of cells; same as pellis, and thought by some to be incorrectly used in this situation as it refers in botany to the waxy surface of certain leaves

Cutis -- type of "cuticle" (pellis), surface layer of cap cells if they are differentiated from the underlying tissue and arranged more or less parallel to cap surface: if the hyphae are radially arranged, it is a parallelocutis; if they are not, it is called a mixtocutis; the prefix ixo- can be added to indicate that elements are gelatinized; see also pileipellis, derm

Cyanophilic -- said of basidia, spores or hyphae whose walls absorb a greater amount of cotton blue than their contents; said of contents of  cystidia that absorb cotton blue

Cylindric -- of the same diameter throughout its length; of stem, terete (not compressed); of spores, according to one set of criteria ratio of length to width 2-3: less would be oblong, more would be bacciliform

Cyphellaceous -- refers to groups of basidiomycetes, often small and disk- or cup-shaped, which have been associated with the family Cyphellaceae: many of them have been redistributed to other families

Cystidium (plural cystidia) -- a sterile cell frequently of distinctive shape, at any surface of a fruiting body, (sometimes used in a strict sense restricted to sterile cells in hymenium), classified by 1) position: pileocystidium (cap), pleurocystidium (gill face), cheilocystidium (gill edge), caulocystidium (stem) etc., 2) form: leptocystidium (smooth, thin-walled, without discernible contents), lamprocystidium (thick-walled), metuloid (thick-walled encrusted; or a type of lamprocystidium which is rounded at top or with a variable shaped top), etc., 3) contents: chrysocystidium (like leptocystidium but with highly staining contents), gloeocystidium (thin-walled, usually irregular, contents colorless or yellowish and highly refractile) etc., 4) origin: pseudocystidia (derived from a conducting element, oily contents), macrocystidium (arising deep in the flesh of Lactarius or Russula); 5) often further described by shape: aciculate (needle-shaped), aculeate (spine-shaped), ampulliform (flask-shaped), capitate (with a head), clavate (club-shaped), cylindric, fusoid (spindle-shaped), furcate (forking), lageniform (gourd-shaped), lanceolate (lance-shaped), lecythiform (bowling pin shape), napiform (turnip-shaped), pyriform (pear-shaped), rostrate (with a beak), subulate (awl-shaped), tibiiform (like a tibia), turbinate (top-shaped), urticoid (with a swollen base and a long gradually narrowed apex), utriform (bladder-shaped), ventricose (wider in middle), vesiculate (bladder-shaped)

Cystoderm -- applied to pellis consisting of rounded elements; same as polycystoderm

Daedaloid -- with elongated and sinuous (curving) openings

Deciduous -- referring to trees that seasonally shed their leaves; or referring to anything that falls off, such as granules that tend to fall off the cap

Decorticated -- of dead wood without the bark

Decumbent -- (of stem) with the lower end lying against the substratum

Decurrent -- refers to gills that run down the stem: i.e. attachment at stem is wider than average height of gill. Pertaining to the attachment of the gills to the stipe, in which the gills curve partly down the stipe towards the base of the stipe.

Decurved -- referring to a cap margin or scales means curved downward

Deflexed -- same as decurved

Delignifying decay -- a lignin and cellulose decomposing rot, leaving the wood light colored and fibrous

Deliquesce -- melt into liquid, usually referring to the gills and cap of Coprinus or of some species of Bolbitiaceae

Deliquescing -- The process by which gills in the genus Coprinus rapidly break down into a black ink-like liquid, droplets of which disperse spores.

Deliquescent -- melting into a liquid

Dendrophysis -- see  hyphidium

Denticulate -- finely toothed, or lined with triangular fragments of tissue

Depauperate -- undeveloped because of lack of favorable conditions

Depressed -- of cap, having the middle lower than the edge; of gills, sinuate; depressed adnate refers to an adnate gill with a portion of the gill lower than its outer edge

Derm -- surface layer of cap cells if they are differentiated from the underlying tissue and arranged more or less perpendicular to cap surface: if the elements are a single row or roundish cells, this is a cellular derm; if cells are elongated and all reach the same level, this is a palisoderm; if cells are elongated and of different lengths, it is a trichoderm; the prefix ixo- can be added to indicate that elements are gelatinized

Dermatocystidium (plural dermatocystidia) -- sterile cell (cystidium) on the cap surface

Dextrinoid -- staining yellowish brown or reddish brown in Melzer's reagent. A chemical staining reaction in which the tissue, spore wall ornamentation, etc. stains reddish to reddish-brown in Melzer's reagent.

Diaphanous -- transparent or nearly so

Dichophysis -- repeatedly dichotomously branched modified terminal hypha in spore-bearing surface

Dichotomous -- repeatedly dividing or forking in pairs

Differentiated -- developed so as to be different from surrounding cells; of cystidia, distinguishable from surrounding cells

Dimidiate -- of cap, semicircular; of gills, that reach only halfway to stem

Dimitic -- consisting of 2 kinds of  hyphae, such as generative and skeletal hyphae, or generative and binding hyphae, see also sarcodimitic

Dingy -- color appearing grimy or dirty

Disc -- center of the cap

Discoid -- dish-shaped

Distant -- of gill spacing, meaning the gills are spaced far apart, the order being crowded, (subcrowded), (subclose), close, subdistant, distant

Divergent -- of gill hyphae, projecting outward and downward away from cap as seen in cross-section. Usually referring to gill trama, in which the tramal hyphae branch outward from the gill center towards the hymenium and downward towards the gill edge.

Diverticulate -- said of hyphae or cystidia that have numerous peg-like protuberances or small branches scattered over their surfaces

Division -- classification grouping equivalent to phylum for plants and fungi

Double -- of ring, composed of two distinct layers of tissue, the lower layer typically being cottony or fibrillose

Downy -- with fine soft hairs

Drab -- a dull medium or brownish gray, dark gray with shades of yellow; gray with violet overtones; in Ridgway 1912, a gray-brown

Drab gray -- brownish gray

Dresden brown -- dark yellowish brown

Dry -- surface not sticky or slimy or hygrophanous, feeling as if there is no moisture on surface

Dull -- opposite of shiny

Duplex -- flesh of two distinct textures

Dusky -- somewhat dark, implies absence of light and color

Eburneous -- white, like ivory

Eccentric -- off center; of stem attachment, attached away from center of cap but not at its edge

Echinate -- having sharply pointed spines, like a sea-urchin

Echinulate -- Referring to spiny ornamentation; e.g. the fine spines seen on the surface of some species of puffballs in the genus Lycoperdon. Also, the finely spined spores of Laccaria species. See Photo Below.

Ecru -- light brown or the color of unbleached linen

Ecru drab -- brownish gray with slight pinkish cast

Ectomycorrhiza -- system in which mycelium branches through soil and forms a covering around individual rootlets, growing between the outer rootlet cells, exchanging phosphorus for compounds that the plant produces by photosynthesis, formed in trees of the family Pinaceae and Fagaceae; Genera which are predominantly ectomycorrhizal include Amanita, Cortinarius, Gomphidius, Hebeloma, Hygrophorus, Inocybe, Laccaria, Lactarius, Leucocortinarius, Naucoria, Paxillus, Rozites, Russula, Tricholoma

Ectotrophic mycorrhiza -- same as  estomycorrhiza

Effused -- spread out over material it is growing on without regular form

Effuso-reflexed -- resupinate patch whose edges are bent back to form a cap

Egg -- Young stage of a stinkhorn or other mushroom before it actually buds open. See Photo below of an Amanita egg.

Elastic -- springing back to its original shape

Elevated -- of cap margin, describes cap with margin uplifted, usually seen in age

Ellipsoid -- like an oblong sphere, often referring to the three dimensional shape of a spore

Elliptic -- like an oblong circle, often referring to the outline (as opposed to the three dimensional shape) of a spore, according to one set of criteria, ratio of length to width is 1.15-1.60

Elongate -- of spores, same as oblong, at least according to one definition, but may refer to cylindric as well

emarginate -- of gills, with a notch near stem, Largent & Baroni equate it with abruptly adnexed, but Ainsworth's Dictionary of the Fungi appears to equate it to sinuate (notched at the proximal end at junction with stem), and Hansen illustrates it as a deeper notch of the sinuate type; also used to describe a particular kind of bulb on stem

Encrusted -- same as incrusted

Endomycorrhiza -- system in which mycelium branches through soil and grows between and within root cells, exchanging phosphorus and other nutrients for compounds that the plant produces by photosynthesis, formed in 90% of seed plants and conifers, except conifers of the family Pinaceae; Some Armillaria species form endomycorrhiza with orchids

Endosporium -- the innermost layer of the spore wall

Endotrophic mycorrhiza -- same as endomycorrhiza

Entire -- with even edges: of gills, not serrated or toothed; of cap margin, means the outline is smooth and uninterrupted (not lobed, or irregular, crenate or serrate

Epicutis -- the outermost layer of the pellis ("cuticle"), properly called the suprapellis

Epigeous -- growing on or above ground

Epiphytal -- growing on leaves

Episporium -- the layer of the spore that is usually the thickest, giving the spores their form and rigidity, outside the endosporium and inside the exosporium

Epithelium -- a type of cellular pellis in which elements are in chains so that the pellis is many-layered, same as polycystoderm

Equal -- of a stem, the same diameter throughout its length, cylindric; of gill, broad (high) to same extent throughout length or alike in length

Ericaceous -- of the heath family of plants

Eroded -- of the margins of cap or gills, developing irregular jagged edges as a result of deterioration, irregularly

Erumpent -- fruiting body erupting through ground but barely rising above it

Esculent -- edible

Evanescent -- soon disappearing, fleeting. Rapidly disappearing.

Even -- of cap margin, means not wavy or lobed: the bottom line of the margin as seen from the side is a single flat plane revolving around the stem; of gill edges, means not toothed, eroded, fringed etc; of surface of cap, stem or spores means without striations, elevations or depressions

Ex -- from, first published validly by second author

Excrescence -- of cystidia, outgrowth surface

Exosporium -- the layer of the spore that becomes the outermost when the perisporium disappears, outside the episporium

Expanded -- cap fully developed; cap spread out

Expanding -- of cap, spreading out

Fabaceous -- bean-like

Face -- of gills, the side as opposed to the edge (margin). The side of a gill

Face view -- of spores, when the basidium with attached spores is viewed from the side, the spores directly above and in the center are being viewed in face view and the ones at the sides are in profile view, when not attached to basidium the shape that is wider will generally be the face view if there is a difference

Facultative -- referring to an optional situation, sometimes, not necessarily; not obligate; of a parasite, able to live also as a saprobe (on dead material or from substances produced by living ones)

Fairy Ring -- Click Photo for detailed story and description. A circle or arc of mushrooms

Falcate -- of spores, sickle-shaped

Falsely echinulate -- of spores, appearing ornamented with fine spines in optical section but actually with smooth outline, as in Fayodia

Family -- a classification group above genus and species, but below class and order, suffix is -aceae

Farinaceous -- of odor, with the smell of fresh ground meal from whole grain, especially wheat, same as mealy. An odor variously described as that of raw potatoes, raw cucumbers, or even of soaps; mealy.

Fasciated -- of stems, caps, grown together so that tissues are intimately continuous, compare caespitose

Fascicle -- a little group or bundle of fruiting bodies, hyphae or cystidia

Fasciculate -- of fibrils, scales, stems, crowded in bundles

Felted -- same as felty

Felty -- appearing like felt, covered with more or less erect short fibrils which are long enough that some collapse; densely matted and interwoven, same as matted-fibrillose

Ferruginous -- rusty red

Fetid -- ill-smelling

Fibril -- thin thread-like fiber

Fibrillose -- composed of delicate fibers which are long and evenly arranged on the surface. Possessing surface fibrils.

Fibrous -- composed of tough, stringlike tissue

Filamentous -- composed of hyphae (threadlike cells). Composed of thread-like cells.

Filiform -- threadlike, long and slender

Fimbriate -- fringed

Finely adnexed -- of gills, so narrowly attached that they give the appearance of being free

Fistulose -- of stem, having the flesh empty of fibrils, same as hollow, tubular

Flabelliform -- fan-shaped

Flaccid -- not firm, flabby

Flaring -- spreading out

Flat -- of cap, the margin being on the same level as the center, same as plane and applanate

Fleeting -- quickly disappearing, used here as equivalent to evanescent or  fugacious

Flesh -- the tissue of cap or stem, not including the surface

Fleshy -- soft as opposed to tough; having significant substance

Flexuous -- of the stem, or of cystidia, bent alternately in opposite directions

Floccose -- with easily removed cottony or woolly tufts; woolly or cottony; dry and loosely arranged; having the appearance of cotton flannel. Having a cottony appearance. Seen in some species of Amanita.

Flocculose -- with fine, easily removed cottony or woolly tufts; finely woolly or cottony

Fluted -- of cap, with radial ridges; of stem, with longitudinal ridges

Foetid -- ill-smelling

Foray -- a field trip to hunt mushrooms, such as the term "foraging"

Foray list -- a list of species compiled from a field trip, often from macroscopic features, and often not as accurately as in geographic listings found in monographs or journal articles

Forked -- of gills, dividing into two or more branches as they goes away from stem

Forking -- of gills, dividing into two or more branches as they goes away from stem

Form -- a consistent appearing variation of a species, with less variation than a variety, often not sufficiently hereditary as to characterize  homogeneous populations

Forma -- see form

Free -- refers to gills that are not attached to stem

Friable -- crumbling easily

Fringed -- with a border of parallel threads or fibers, so that the edge is somewhat jagged and not smooth

Frondose -- of a forest or the wood of hardwood trees

Fruit-body -- same as fruiting body

Fruiting body -- the whole reproductive structure of a mushroom including cap, gills and stem

Fugacious -- soon disappearing, fleeting

Fuliginous -- sooty brown or dark-smoke colored

Fulvous -- fox-colored, deep orange to reddish orange, reddish cinnamon brown

Fungus (plural fungi) -- an organism that lacks chlorophyll, consists of filamentuous tubular branching cells with nuclei, and reproduces by spores

Funnel-shaped -- with a very deep depression, like that of a funnel

Furcate -- forking; forked or branched irregularly

Furfuraceous -- scurfy, surface covered with branlike particles resembling scales, coarser than granular

Fuscous -- color of a very dark storm cloud: variously described as combinations of gray, brown, purple, or black

Fuscous-black -- a dark, dusky black or a black with a dark reddish-gray component

Fuscous-brown -- a dark, dusky brown or a brown with a dark reddish-gray component

Fuscous-purple -- purple with a dark reddish-gray component or somewhat dark (dusky) purple

Fusiform -- spindle-shaped, narrowing from middle to both ends

Fusoid -- somewhat spindle-shaped

Fusoid-ventricose -- of cystidium, tapered toward both ends but distinctly enlarged in the middle

Gasteromycete -- a basidiomycete that does not actively discharge it spores, formally constituting a class of basidiomycetes

Gastroid -- not forcibly discharging its spores

Gelatinous -- jelly-like in consistency or appearance; applied to tissue whose hyphae become partially dissolved and glutinous in wet weather and when mounted in water under the microscope appear more transparent and wider, loosening from one another

Generative hypha -- thin-walled branched hypha

Geniculate -- bent (like a knee)

Genus (plural genera) -- classification grouping below family but above genus: first letter is given in upper case

Genus -- Taxonomic term meaning a group of similar species. Genera which are closely related are placed into families

Germ pore -- a soft spot in the wall of certain spores, through which the fungus first starts to grow, same as apical pore (but not the same as apiculus)

Gibbous -- of cap, with an unsymmetrical convexity or umbo, or with convexity on one side

Gill -- gill, the spore-bearing platelike structure extending underneath and from the center of the cap like a spoke of a wheel

Gill Attachment -- 

Decurrent -- Gills running down the stem. See Below Photo.

Free -- Gills not directly attached to the stem(stipe). See Photo Below. Common in Amanitas.

Gill Spacing -- 

                                           Distant--                               Subdistant--                            Close--                            Crowded--

Gilvous -- a bright yellowish brown, yellowish leather colored

Glabrate -- becoming glabrous, becoming bald

Glabrous -- bald, without hairs or raised fibers or scales or raised patches

Glandular -- with sticky drops or glands

Grandular Dots -- Glandular dots appear on the stems of some mushrooms, commonly in the genus Suillus. The dots are usually very small, and result from clusters of pigmented, inflated cells on the stem surface. See Photo Below.

Glaucous -- sea-gray; sea-blue-green; of cap, covered with white bloom, easily rubbed off

Gleba -- the spore mass of a Gasteromycete

Globose -- spherical, like a globe; of spores, spherical with round outline, according to one set of criteria ratio of length to width is 1.01-1.05: a greater ratio would indicate subglobose, elliptic etc.

Gloeocystidia (plural gloeocystidium) -- thin-walled  cystidium with granular or oily contents; sometimes synonymous with  chrysocystidium

Gluten -- the dissolved gelatinous hyphaeof certain tissues

Glutinous -- slimy, having a highly viscid gelatinous layer, more than viscid

Granular -- same as granulose

Granulose -- covered with granules

Greasy -- slippery or oily but not viscid (sticky) or slimy, same as lubricous

Gregarious -- growing in close groups but not tufted or clustered, A growth form in which mushrooms fruit in relatively close proximity.

Group -- a cluster of taxonomically related similar species typified by a particular species, as in Conocybe tenera group, sometimes used of a group of similar-looking species

Guttate -- having drop-like spots; drop-shaped

Guttulate -- of spores, containing an oil droplet

Habit -- the general external and characteristic appearance of mushrooms, and manner in which they are found growing

Habitat -- the natural place of growth

Hair brown -- grayish brown

Hairy -- covered by an arrangement of fibrils or mycelial strands resembling hairs

Hallucinogen -- capable of producing disturbances in (usually visual) perception

Hardwood -- any tree that is not a conifer

Hazel -- light to moderate yellowish brown; the color of the shell of the ripe hazelnut

Herbaceous -- said of those flowering plants that die annually at least down to the roots (i.e. non-woody flowering plants)

Herbarium -- a collection of dried plants or fungi arranged systematically

Heterodiametric -- of spore sizes, the average length divided by the average width has a value greater than 1.28: with  subisodiametric spores this value is 1.16-1.27, and with  isodiametric spores it is 1.0-1.15

Heterogeneous -- composed of unlike tissues; composed of more than one cell type

Heteromerous -- of trama in Russulaceae, having sphaerocyst nests among ilamentous hyphae

Heteromorphous -- composed of more than one structure

Hilar appendage -- nipple-like projection on spore which corresponds to the area that was attached to the basidium, sometimes used to refer to a projection on the other end of the spore, same as apiculus and hilar appendix

Hilar appendix -- same as hilar appendage

Hirsute -- covered with long stiff hairs

Hispid -- covered with long rough hairs or bristles, coarser or stiffer than hirsute

Hoary -- covered with dense silky down; canescent; with a silvery sheen as if covered with frost

Hollow -- of stem, having the flesh empty of fibrils, same as fistulose or tubular

Holotype -- the single element on which the describing author based a name, in the case of a mushroom species, the collection on which the describing author based the name

Homogeneous -- the same throughout

Hooked -- of gill attachment, same as  uncinate

Homogeneous -- composed of like tissues; composed of one cell type

Horizontal -- of gills, attached in straight line perpendicular to stem

Host -- plant or animal on or in which a parasitic fungus exists

Humicolous -- living in humus

Humus -- decaying organic material in or on soil

Hyaline -- colorless

Hygrophanous -- cap surface changing color markedly as it dries, usually having a water-soaked appearance when wet and turning a lighter opaque color on drying. Having the characteristic of changing color upon drying.

Hygrophoroid -- applied to any mushroom with thick wax-like gills, like Hygrophorus

Hymeniform -- resembling a hymenium in form

Hymenophore -- spore-bearing surface

Hypha (plural hyphae) -- threadlike fungal cell

Hyphidium -- a little, or strongly, modified terminal hypha in the hymenium (spore-bearing surface), distinguished as follows by Donk: haplo- (simple - ) unmodified, unbranched or little branched; dendro- (dendrophysis) irregularly or strongly branched; dicho- (dichophysis) repeatedly dichotomously branched; acantho- (acanthophysis) having pin-like outgrowths near apex; synonymous or near synonymous are paraphysis, pseudoparaphysis, paraphysoid, dikaryoparaphysis and pseudophysis sensu Singer 1962. A little, or strongly, modified terminal hypha in the hymenium (spore-bearing surface)

Hypochnoid -- having effused, resupinate, dry, rather loosely intertwined hyphae

Hypoderm -- a differentiated region just below the pileipellis or stipitipellis, in most instances the same as the subpellis

Hypogeous -- fruiting underground

Hyphoid -- like hyphae; cobwebby

Hymenium -- The spore-bearing surface of a mushroom is called the "hymenium". The tubes make up the hymenium of a mushroom with pores. The gills constitute the hymenium of gilled mushrooms;  In  morchella(morels), false morels, helvella and similar mushrooms, the hymenium is the cap surface. The hymenium is covered with microscopic basidia or asci, which hold spores until they are released. Fertile area of fruiting body where spores are produced (in gilled mushrooms the surface of the gills), or the surface cell layer that produces the spores

Imbricate -- each growing just above the others, as with roof shingles

Inamyloid -- remaining clear or becoming yellow in Melzer's reagent, not amyloid or dextrinoid, same as nonamyloid

Incarnate -- flesh-colored

Incrassated -- widened

Incrusted -- covered with a thin, hard crust; of hyphae, with matter located on their outer wall; of cystidia, covered with crystalline or amorphous deposit, particularly at the top

Incurved -- of cap margin, curved inwards toward stem, but less than inrolled

Inequilateral -- of spores, means that a line drawn through the length of spore does not divide equal mirror images

Inferior -- of ring, located near base of stem, or at least below the middle

Inflated -- enlarged in some part; of a cell, enlarged at either the tip, middle or base

Inflexed -- bent inward, incurved

Inflorescence -- the arrangement of flowers on a floral axis

Infundibuliform -- funnel-shaped

Ingrown -- of stem, same as insititious and ingrown

Ink cap -- Common name of the Coprinus genus-- the caps become an inky mess when aged.

Innate -- usually of fibrils of scales, meaning that they are not raised from the surface or readily removed from it

Inrolled -- of cap margin, rolled inwards so that the edge of the margin is actually points toward gills

Inserted -- of stem, same as insititious and ingrown

Insititious -- of stem, devoid or any fibrils or hyphae at point of attachment to substrate, same as inserted and ingrown

Intercalary -- interposed, interpolated, placed in between

Intermediate -- of a ring (annulus), part way between a hanging or (skirtlike) ring which flares downward, and a sheathlike ring which flares upward, also referred to as a level ring

Intermediates -- subgills

Interveined -- of gills, connected by "veins" (ridges) that run between gills

Intervenose -- of gills, connected by "veins" (ridges) that run between gills

Interwoven -- hyphae entwined or tangled, not forming a regular pattern

Involute -- rolled in: in the case of the cap margin, rolled down and in, similar to inrolled

Isabelline -- color of unbleached linen, dingy yellowish brown, pale tan, similar to alutaceous, in Ridgway 1912 isabella color is a yellow brown

Isodiametric -- radially symmetrical; of spore sizes, according to one set of criteria the average length divided by the average width has a value less than 1.16: with subisodiametric spores this value is 1.16-1.27, and with heterodiametric spores it is greater than 1.27

Isotype -- a duplicate or part of the type collection, other than the holotype

Ixo -- a prefix indicating that elements are gelatinized

Ixocutis -- a curtis (with hyphae appressed to surface) embedded in slime

Ixolattice -- may be a well-developed ixocutis in which the hyphae have become very widely separated by slime, and the arrangement presented is modified to that of a tangled mass of hyphae, or may be an ixotrichodermium that collapses to form an ixolattice

Ixotrichodermium -- a trichodermium with slime present in it

Kaiser brown -- deep ferruginous

KOH -- potassium hydroxide, an agent commonly used to revive dried mushroom material, or show chemical reactions on the surface of the mushroom, or chemical reactions under the microscope. The chemical Potassium Hydroxide. Used in a 3% solution, it is a standard mounting medium used to rehydrate material for microscopic examination. It may also be used as a macro- or micro-chemical reagent differentially staining the tissues of some species. Concentrated solutions of this chemical are caustic and should be handled with care.

Kingdom -- one of five groups of living organisms: Monera (including bacteria and blue-green algae), Protoctista (including protozoans, most algae and three phyla of fungi), Animalia (animals), Plantae (plants), and Eumycota (the rest of the fungi)

Laccate -- looking as though varnished

Lacerate -- irregularly torn

Laciniate -- of margin or cap or annulus, cut more coarsely than fringed, slashed

Lactiferous -- of hyphae in flesh, bearing a milky juice

Lacuna (plural lacunae) -- hole or hollow

Lacunose -- having holes or hollows

Lageniform -- of cystidia, swollen at the base with the middle and top part tapered into a long beak, like a gourd, therefore gourd-like

Lamella (plural lamellae) -- gill, the spore-bearing platelike structure extending underneath and from the center of the cap

Lamellae -- The technical term used to describe the gills of a mushroom.

Lamellula (plural lamellulae) -- the short gills that do not span the entire distance from margin to stem

Lamprocystidium (plural lamprocystidia) -- thick-walled cystidium

Lanate -- same as woolly

Lanceolate -- like a lance, many times longer than broad, and tapering; of cystidia somewhat wider in middle and tapered at both ends

Lateral -- of a stem, attached to the side of the cap

Latericeous -- brick-red

Latex -- juice or milk of a Lactarius; juice usually of a milky color but also applied to other colors

Lectotype -- an element selected in a later work from the original material where no holotype was designated

Lens -- a hand magnifying glass

Lenticel -- any of the raised pores in the stems or branches of woody plants that allow gas exchange between the atmosphere and the internal tissues

Lentiform -- shaped like a lens

Leptocystidia -- smooth thin-walled  cystidia

Lecythiform -- of cystidia, wide at base with middle tapered into narrow neck and top swollen into a head, like a bowling pin (lecythiform refers to a Greek stoppered bottle)

Lichen -- a dual organism in which a fungus (usually an ascomyce ascomycete but occasionally a basidiomycete) maintains a green alga or cyanobacterium captive for mutual benefit

Lignicolous -- living in, on, or out of wood. Living on wood.

Lignin -- the organic substance of woody tissue other than cellulose

Lilac -- the color of flowers of the lilac shrub, a pale purple or mauve

Liver -- brown deep reddish brown

Livid -- a dark blue-gray color

Lobed -- with rather large, rounded divisions on the margin

Long decurrent -- refers to decurrent gills that proceed a long way down the stem, for instance proceeding further down the stem than the height of the gills 

 Lubricous -- greasy or slippery or oily but not viscid (sticky) or slimy

Luteous -- dull egg-yellow

Lutescent -- becoming luteous

Macrofungi -- Fungi visible to the naked eye.

Margin -- The outermost edge of the gill ( as in the edge facing downwards)

Macrocystidium (plural macrocystidia) -- cystidium arising deep in the flesh of Lactarius or Russula; any large cystidium

Macromorphological -- concerning structure that can be seen with the naked eye

Macroscopic -- visible to the naked eye, without a microscope

Maculate -- spotted

Micron -- A metric unit of measure equal to one one-thousandth (1/1000) of a Millimeter. Written as 0.001mm.

Milk -- A liquid exuded from certain species such as Lactarius. See Photo Below.

Mycelium -- The vegetative part of the fungus which grows in the host or soil and produces the fruit body. The mycelium is like a mass of often microscopic fibers. It is underground and may be invisible. The visible mushroom is like it's fruit, the mycelium being the fruit tree.

Mycology -- The Study Of Fungi.

Nomen provisorium -- a name proposed provisionally, not yet an official name

Nonamyloid -- remaining clear or becoming yellow in Melzer's reagent, not amyloid or dextrinoid, same as inamyloid - distinguish from "not amyloid" which would include nonamyloid and dextrinoid

Notched -- refers to gills that are uncinate or sinuate or emarginate, as if a wedge of gill had been removed near the stem: if the line of the bottom edge of the gill curves down sharply, gills are uncinate, if it curves gradually toward the stem reaching it more or less horizontally, gills are sinuate (emarginate)

Nutant -- nodding

Obclavate -- club-shaped in the opposite direction to that expected; of cystidia, with base swollen and narrowing at middle and top

Obconic -- like an ice-cream cone with point down

Obligate -- invariably found in a particular situation, usually in reference to organisms that must live in a particular association with another

Oblong -- of spores, elongated with approximately parallel sides; according to one set of criteria, ratio of length to width is 1.6-2: shorter would be elliptic and longer cylindric; however, spores in this range are often referred to as narrowly elliptic

Obovate -- ovate with the larger end in the opposite direction to the usual

Obovoid -- ovoid with the larger end in the opposite direction to the usual

Obpyriform -- pear-shaped in the opposite direction to the usual one

Obsolete -- (of annulas, scales etc.) very imperfectly developed, hardly perceptible; of terms, no longer in use

Obtuse -- blunt, not pointed; greater than a right angle

Obtusely conic -- rounded or blunt cone-shaped

Obtusely umbonate -- broadly umbonate, not with sharp umbo

Ochraceous -- ochre-yellowish, yellow-orange with a brownish tinge

Ochraceous-buff -- a very pale but dingy yellow

Ochraceous-tawny -- like the color of a dingy or dirty lion

Ochre -- between warm buff and yellow to brownish orange

Ochreate -- of volva, sheathing the stem at base like a stocking

Odor -- The smell of the fruiting body

Olivaceous -- olive gray-brown; with an olive shadeO

Omphalinoid -- of general form of the genus Omphalina, with broadly convex to depressed cap, decurrent or subdecurrent gills, cartilaginous stem, and no ring or volva

Opaque -- not transparent or translucent, often used of cap margin where gills do not show through as striations

Orbicular -- circular

Order -- a classification grouping below class but above family, genus and species: suffix is -ales

Organism -- individual living bacterium, protozoan, animal, plant, fungus etc.

Ornamentation -- any projections outside the structural surface such as fibrils, tomentum, hairs, warts, scales, spines, ridges, etc.

Ornamentation type -- Types of Russula spore ornamentation have been designated by Singer (1932), using Roman numerals, Pearson, (P1-P11), Rayner (15 types), and Dave Patterson in his Key to the Eastern U.S. Russulas (A1 to E3). The last are used in this program. For an illustration of the Patterson types, use the Glossary on the List menu.

Outer veil -- same as universal veil

Oval -- like the outline of an egg

Ovate -- similar to oval but some regard as more pointed at the narrower end

Ovoid -- shaped like an egg, same as oval, but sometimes implying 3-dimensional shape

Palisadoderm -- type of pellis in which terminal elements reach the same level and form a palisade of inflated somewhat elongate cells

Pallid -- very pale in color, almost a dull whitish

Papilla (plural papillae) -- a small nipple-like protuberance

Papillate -- with papilla or papillae on surface

Parabolic -- of cap, with the height greater than the width, the top rounded

Parallel -- of hyphae, arranged more or less parallel to each other

Parasitic -- feeding on another living organisms; living at the expense of other organisms to their detriment

Parasitize -- feed on another living organism

Parasitic -- A  fungus that grows at the expense of another organism, drawing nourishment from it. Example: Armillaria mellea (also called the honey mushroom or oak root rot fungus).

Partial veil -- The covering of the gills while very young that breaks open, often leaving remnants on the stem (stipe). Inner veil of tissue which joins the stem to the cap edge at first in some species of mushrooms, and often breaks to leave a ring on stem and remnants hanging from the cap margin; partial veils are usually either membraneous or cortinateSee Photo Below.

Partial Veil Remnants -- The partial veil may also leave fragments clinging to the margin of the cap. Sometimes, these partial veil remnants are the only evidence one has that there was ever a partial veil at all, and their presence or absence is frequently important in mushroom identification. See Photo Below. 

Patches -- Fragments of universal veil tissue left on the cap of a mushroom after it has matured are called "patches." Like warts, patches are easily washed off by rain. Patches are similar to warts, but there are fewer of them, and they normally involve larger fragments. Please see the below photo.

Parenchymatous -- fundamental tissue of plants composed of thin-walled cells able to divide; organ tissue as opposed to connective tissue

Patterson ornamentation types -- Types of Russula spore ornamentation as designated by Dave Patterson in his Key to the Eastern U.S. Russulas. For an illustration of these types, use the Glossary on the List menu. Other classifications of Russula spores have been made by Singer (1932), using Roman numerals, Pearson, (P1-P11), and Rayner (15 types)

PDAB -- a solution of p-diaminobenzaldehyde in 70% ethanol

Pecan brown -- orangy pinkish brown

Pectinate -- (of cap margin) resembling the teeth of a comb; same as striate

Pedicel -- of cystidia, a slender stalk

Pellicle -- an upper surface layer on cap surface that can undergo gelatinization, making the cap viscid (sticky) to the touch; often it can be peeled away from the cap, may be thought of as covering cuticle; same as cuticle or as thinner and more definite

Pellis -- surface layer of cells, same as "cuticle", if the pellis is one layer it is called a suprapellis, if 2 layers, the outer is the suprapellis and the inner the subpellis, if 3 layers, the middle is called the mediopellis

Pellucid -- translucent

Pendant -- hanging down, skirt like

Peppery -- with acrid taste, giving the tongue a burning sensation

Peridium -- the outer covering enclosing the spore mass in gastermycetes

Peronate -- sheathlike; booted

Petaloid -- shaped like the petal of a flower (narrowed somewhat at base), similar to spathulate

Phaseoliform -- bean-shaped

Phylogeny -- the history of the evolution of the group to which a species belongs

Phylum (plural phyla) -- classification grouping below kingdom but above class

Pileus -- The cap of a mushroom. The hymenium-supporting part of agarics.

Pileate -- having a cap

Pileipellis -- the outer cellular layer of the cap (pileus), excluding veils, used in microscopic descriptions: it may be undifferentiated from the underlying tissue, or arranged parallel to surface (curtis) or arranged perpendicularly to surface (derm)

Pileocystidium (plural pileocystidia) -- sterile cell (cystidium) on the surface of the cap

Pilocystidium -- same as pileocystidium

Pilose -- (of cap), covered with long, soft, hairy filaments

Pip-shaped -- (of spores), shaped like an apple seed; sometimes used to describe spores with a plage at one end that would be described as elliptic by other authors

Pith -- the central stuffing of some mushrooms

Pitted -- with small depressions

Plage -- a distinctive flattened area on the dorsal side of the spore (the side facing the central axis of the basidium on which the spore develops), near the hilar appendage (the part of the spore that was attached to the basidium), also known as suprahilar disc; if plage amyloid it is known as a hilar spot, if depressed as suprahilar depression

Plane -- having a flat surface; of cap, having a horizontal more or less flat surface, with the margin on the same level as the center, same as flat or  applanate

Plano-convex -- a convex cap with a flattened disc, same as broadly convex

Plectenchyma -- a thick tissue formed by hyphae becoming twisted and fixed together; it is prosenchyma (proso-) when the hyphal elements are seen to be hyphae and pseudoparenchyma (para-) when they are not

Pleurocystidium (plural pleurocystidia) -- a sterile cell (cystidium) located on the face (side) of a gill

Pleuropseudocystidium (plural pleuropseudocystidia) -- pseudocystidium located on the face (side) of a gill

Pleurotoid -- resembling in general form the genus Pleurotus, may be applied to any gilled mushroom either without a stem or with a stem attached in a lateral or off-center manner

Pliable -- capable of bending, easily flexible

Pliant -- being pliable without breaking, flexible, not rigid or firm

Plicate -- folded like a fan, pleated

Plumbeous -- lead-gray

Pluteotoid -- resembling in general form the genus Pluteus, with free or finely adnexed gills, lacking a ring or volva

Pocket rot -- a rot producing hollow pockets in a tree

Polar view -- end view of a spore

Polycystoderm -- same as epithelium

Polymorphic -- with many forms or shapes

Polypores -- the shelf or bracket fungi which produce spores on the inside of vertically oriented tubes (ending in pores) that do not separate easily from cap and are often tough, generally in Order Poriales. Common name of tough-textured fungi with pores

Pores -- Pores are very small holes on the underneath side of some mushroom species such as Boletes as opposed to gills. They produce their spores on the inside surfaces of tubes. A circular depression in place of the gill of many non-gilled species; a circular depression on the spores of many species: see germ pore

Powdery -- looking finely powdered or very finely granular, sometimes used here as equivalent to pruinose

Primordium -- the earliest stage of development

Profile view -- of spores, when the basidium with attached spores is viewed from the side, the spores directly above and in the center are being viewed in face view and the ones at the sides are in profile view, when not attached to basidium the shape that is wider will generally be the face view if there is a difference

Protean -- extremely variable

Prout's brown -- dark yellow-brown, warm mid-brown

Pruinate -- same as pruinose

Pruinose -- looking finely powdered or finely granular, often due to cystidia projecting from surface

Pseudoamyloid -- same as dextrinoid

Pseudocystidium (plural pseudocystidia) -- cystidiumderived from a conducting element, filamenteous to fusoid, oily contents, embedded or not projecting

Pseudoparaphysis (plural pseudoparaphyses) -- elements found in certain gilled mushrooms that are similar to the paraphyses found as sterile elements among the asci on spore bearing surfaces of ascomycetes

Pseudoparenchyma -- thick tissue formed by hyphae becoming twisted and fixed together, in which the hyphal elements are not seen to be hyphae

Pseudorhiza -- a long rootlike extension of the lower stem

Psilocin -- 4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, a hallucinogenic substance found in some species of Psilocybe, Panaeolus, Conocybe, Gymnopilus, Inocybe, and Pluteus, giving a bluing reaction in the tissue of a mushroom as it breaks down

Psilocybin -- O-phosphoryl-4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, a hallucinogenic substance found in some species of Psilocybe, Panaeolus, Conocybe, Gymnopilus, Inocybe, and Pluteus

Puberulent -- minutely pubescent = puberulous = pubescent

Puberulous -- minutely pubescent = puberulent = pubescent

Pubescence -- a covering of soft short downy hairs

Pulverulent -- powdery

Pulvinate -- cushion shaped

Punctate -- marked with dots consisting of hollows, depressions, spots, raised-joined scales, or agglutinated fibrils, all very small. Having minute scales or points on the surface.

Putrescent -- in the process of rotting or smelling as if it is. Tending to decay rapidly.

Pyriform -- pear-shaped

Quaker drab -- medium gray

Radicating -- forming a root

Radicate -- with a root or pseudorhiza

Rameales structure -- type of pellis in which the hyphae of the outer layer are basically prostrate but possess short vertical branches, or the hyphae branch irregularly as in some species of Marasmius, Coprinus, Marasmiellus, or Xeromphalina

Raphanoid -- like radish

Raw sienna -- brownish yellow-orange, bright yellow brown

Receptacle -- any hymenium-supporting structure

Recumbent -- hangs down, rests on surface from which it extends

Recurved -- curved back: when used of cap margin or scales means curved back upward

Reflexed -- turned back to form a cap; turned up or back

Regular -- of gill tissue, same as parallel

Reniform -- kidney-shaped

Repand -- (of cap) wavy on margin and turned back or elevated

Repent -- of hyphae, prostrate, lying flat

Refractile -- having power to refract (i.e. to change the direction of light)

Resupinate -- lying flat on what it is growing on, without a stem or well-formed cap, with the gills or pores facing outward

Reticulate -- Usually referring to a fish-net or crosshatch pattern. See Photo Below. Covered with a network of interlacing lines

Reviving -- said of fruiting body which shrivels in dry weather or when dried and takes on its natural shape when wet

Revolute -- (of cap margin), rolled back or up

Rhizoid -- root-like structure from the base of fruiting body

Rhizome -- a rootlike subterranean stem commonly horizontal in position that usually produces roots below and sends up shoots progressively from the upper surface

Rhizomorph -- cordlike strand of twisted hyphae present around base of stem, often dark colored

Rhizomorphs -- Mycelial cords or strands, called "rhizomorphs," are found in some species, and their presence often helps in identification decisions.

Ring -- Remnant of the veil on the stem just under the cap, see photos. Annulas, collar of tissue on stem formed by ruptured of the veil that initially joins the stem to the cap edgeSee annulus.

Ring Zone -- A "ring zone" is a zone on the upper part of the stem resulting from the deterioration of the partial veil.  Ring zones are frequently not as prominent as the rust-colored zone on the Cortinarius species shown in the photo below, they may be barely noticeable.

Rhomboid -- having or nearly having the shape of a rhombus; a parallelogram with angles that are not right angles, and unequal adjacent sides

Rhombus -- an outline with four equal sides, but with angles that are not right angles

Ridged -- of spores, with narrow raised straight or curved strips on the surface of the spore

Rimose -- cracked, referring to surface of cap or stem

Rimulose -- finely cracked

Rivulose -- arranged like rivulets in the soil, marked with riverlike lines

Rood's brown -- dark pinkish brown

Rostrate -- with a beak; of cystidia, having a beak-like or finger-like protuberance called a rostrum

Saccardo's umber -- close to date brown, dark yellow brown

Saccate -- of a volva, shaped like a sac, cup or sheath

Salmon-buff -- a dingy pink

Sanguineous -- blood-red

Saprobe, Sabprobic, Saprophytes -- Fungi that receive nourishment from dead organic material. -- These are Mushrooms that are saprobes survive by decomposing dead or decaying organic material. Many wood rotting fungi are saprobes, and help decompose dead wood--but other wood rotters are parasitic and attack living wood. Saphrophytic organism

Saprophytic -- living on decaying organic matter

Sarcodimitic -- consisting of generative hyphae and thick-walled, long, inflating fusiform elements, as in Gerronema

Sayal brown -- close to cinnamon in color, dull to dark cinnamon; between a moderate orange and a moderate yellowish-brown

Scaber -- short projecting scale or tufted hairs

Scale -- piece of tissue on surface that is not especially elongated, differentiated from surface by color or by projecting from it

Scarlet -- a brilliant red color slightly tinged with orange

Sclerotium -- a knot or firm frequently rounded mass of hyphae, usually underground, sometimes giving rise to mycelium or a fruiting body

Scrobicula (plural scrobiculae) -- a large conspicuous shallowly sunken spot, pit, hollow, or depression

Scrobiculate -- having scrobiculae, pitted with conspicuous wet-appearing slightly depressed areas

Scum-like -- of cap, having an area of superficial dark-colored fibrils

Scurfy -- surface covered with branlike particles resembling scales, same as furfuraceous

Seceding -- refers to gills that have separated in their attachment to the stem and have the appearance of being free, often leaving longitudinal lines on the stem where the gills were once connected

Secondary spores -- not borne on basidia, conidia, chlamydospores etc., formed directly on the mycelium or on hyphae of the fruit body

Secotioid -- suggesting an undeveloped or aborted gilled mushroom, resembling Secotium

Senescent -- becoming old

Sensu -- in the sense of

Sensu lato -- in a wide sense

Sensu stricto -- in a narrow sense

Separable -- said of stem or gill easily removed from cap

Separate -- of gill attachment, same as secede

Sepia -- a moderate brown; a brownish gray to a dark olive-brown

Septate -- partitioned with cross-walls

Septum (plural septa) -- cross-wall in hyphae

Sequestrate -- describes fruiting bodies that have evolved from those that forcibly discharge spores to a closed or even underground form in which spores are retained until it decays or is eaten by an animal, the word referring to spores which have been sequestered (hidden). Lactarius is thought to give rise to Arcangeliella (mostly above ground, but gills not exposed or vertically oriented and do not discharge spores forcibly) and Zelleromyces (underground, no true stem). Russula is thought to give rise to Macowanites (mostly above ground), Gymnomyces (underground, no stem), Elasmomyces (no sphaerocysts in hymenial tissue), and Martiella (no sphaerocysts in hymenial tissue, underground without stem). Cortinarius is thought to give rise to Thaxterogaster (above ground) and Hymenogaster (underground, no stem). Agaricus is thought to give rise to Endoptychum and Longula. Chroogomphus is thought to give rise to Brauniellula (often buried or half buried). Pholiota is thought to be related to Nivatogastrium (grows on wood). Other postulated sequestrates are given in brackets: Amanita (Torrendia), Bolbitiaceae (Gastrocybe), Boletus (Gastroboletus), Coprinus (Podaxis), Entoloma (Richonia), Gomphidius (Gomphogaster), Lepiotaceae (Notholepiota), Paxillaceae (Austrogaster, Gymnopaxillus), Strobilomycetaceae (Gautieria), Suillus (Rhizopogon, Alpova, Truncocolumella, Gastrosuillus).

Sericeous -- silky, like silk

Serrate -- saw-toothed to almost ragged

Serrulate -- finely serrate

Sessile -- lacking a stem

Seta (plural setae) -- pointed, elongated, thick-walled sterile cells

Setula (plural setulae) -- a fine bristle; a thick walled, pigmented, terminal element of a tramal cystidium

Shaggy -- rough as with long hair or wool

Sheathlike -- of a ring, clinging to the stem and opening upwards

Short decurrent -- refers to decurrent gills that do not proceed down stem far: for instance, as much as the width of the gills

Siderophilous -- of basidia, with granules that darken when heated in acetocarmine

Sienna -- raw sienna is brownish yellow-orange or bright yellow brown; burnt sienna is a watery strong red-brown or dark orange brown

Sinuate -- of gill attachment, refers to gills with a lower edge that curves up close to the stem then curves back to reach the stem more or less horizontally; of cap margin means wavy or undulating.  Referring to a type of gill attachment, specifically gills that are notched at their point of attachment to the stipe. See Photo Below.

Sinuous -- crooked or curved

Skeletal hypha -- thick-walled, little branched non-septate hypha

Skirtlike -- of a ring (annulas), hanging down like a skirt

Slimy -- having a thick layer of slime, more than viscid or glutinous

Smooth -- of a surface, without projections, often equivalent to bald or glabrous; but may be described as bumpy and bald, or finely powdery and smooth; of cap margin may mean not wavy or lobed, or may mean not grooved; of spores, not spiny rough, or ridged

Snuff-brown -- same as tobacco-brown, a dark sepia, a dull yellowish brown, a dull cinnamon brown

Solid -- not hollow; feeling hard

Solitary -- not growing in the immediate neighborhood of other individuals

Sordid -- dingy-looking

Sp. nov. -- new species

Sphagnum -- a genus of moss that grows in bogs

Sphaerocyst -- Round swollen cells usually formed in clusters, characteristically found in the Russulaceae. Sphaerocysts make the flesh of Russulas brittle.

Spathulate -- shaped like a spatula or spoon, oblong with a narrowing base

Species -- classification grouping below family and genus, often used for organisms capable of interbreeding (though less common "hybrids" can occur between species), among anamorphic fungi that are not known to breed sexually, it refers to a certain level of similarity in form or function; named by genus name in upper case and species name in lower case, e.g. Russula emetica

Spermatic -- resembling the odor of human sperm or semen

Sphaerocyst, spherocyst -- a round or swollen cell in flesh of certain mushrooms, particularly Russula and Lactarius

Sphaerocyte, spherocyte -- round cell of pellis or veil

Species -- A group of individuals with certain common characteristics

Spore Print -- The spore material left on paper or under a mushroom in the wild when the cap is left for a period of time -- the color can be an important identifying characteristic. See Photo Below of a natural occurrence. Notice the spore deposit on the leaf. A visible deposit of spores obtained by allowing a gilled mushroom to drop spores onto white paper for a few hours or overnight

Stem -- See stipe.

Stipe -- The technical name for a mushroom stem or stalk. The stipe supports the pileus (cap) in the agarics (gilled mushrooms).

Spine -- long slender sharp projection

Spiny -- having many spines

Sporadic -- irregular in its occurrence, either in time or location

Spore -- reproductive cell or "seed" of a fungus, produced on specialized cells, which in gilled mushrooms are on the gills. Reproductive cell found in fungi. A microscopic part of the fungus which can germinate to reproduce the fungus

Spore wall -- in the most complex spore wall there are five layers from outer to inner: perisporium, non-pigmented and usually enveloping spore like a bag which may disappear; exosporium, usually non-pigmented and can often be distinguished chemically from other layers, episporium, a continuation of outer wall of basidium, the thickest layer and the one providing structural support, mesosporium, a barely distinguishable delicate structure, and endosporium, which can vary from very thick (in which case it can then be divided into inner and outer part) or seemingly absent, or truly absent; the presence or absence of layers varies with species

Sporocarp -- a structure in which or on which spores are produced, often used for fruiting body, consisting of cap, gills, and stem

Spotted -- with roundish areas different in color from the rest of the surface

Squamose -- scaly, with moderate to large scales

Squamule -- scale

Squamulose -- with small scales

Squarrose -- covered with upright or curved-up pointed scales

Squarrulose -- covered with small upright pointed scales

Stalk -- same as stipe or stem

Stature -- characteristic shape

Stellate -- star-shaped

Stem -- the column supporting the cap in most mushroom, more correctly called the stipe

Sterigmata -- elongated appendages or "arms" on the basidium upon which spores are borne

Sterile -- not producing spores

Stipe -- the correct name for the "stem" of a mushroom

Stipitate -- having a stipe (or stem)

Stipitipellis -- surface layer of the stem

Stramineous -- straw-colored

Strangulate -- constricted

Streaked -- having faint lines or bands, used when appressed fibrils appear like bands or faint lines

Stria (plural striae) -- lines or fine grooves which may be parallel or radiating

Striate -- marked with lines or fine grooves which may be parallel or radiating

Strigose -- having long stiff hairs

Stroma (plural stromata) -- a mass or matrix of vegetative hyphae, with or without tissue of the host, sometimes sclerotium-like in form, in or on which spores or  fruiting bodys are produced

Stuffed -- containing loose material in the interior, not hollow or solid

Sub- -- near, nearly, more or less, somewhat, slightly; below or under; subdivision of

Subclose -- a term used occasionally of gill spacing, intermediate between close and crowded, might also be used to mean more or less close

Subcrowded -- a term used occasionally of gill spacing, intermediate between close and crowded, might also be used to mean more or less crowded

Subdecurrent -- of gills, meaning short decurrent or nearly decurrent or somewhat decurrent (i.e. intermediate between adnate and decurrent, when attachment extends slightly further down stem than when adnate)

Subdistant -- of gill spacing, intermediate between close and distant, the order being crowded, (subcrowded), (subclose), close, subdistant, distant

Subfusiform -- of spores, elongated, tapered at one end and rounded at the other

Subgills -- the short gills that do not span the entire distance from margin to stem

Subglobose -- of spores, nearly spherical or round; according to one set of criteria (Bas' work on Amanita) ratio of length to width 1.05-1.15

Subhymenium -- a differentiated tissue just beneath the hymenium

Subicule -- same as subiculum

Subiculum -- a net-, wool-, or crust-like growth of mycelium under fruiting bodies

Subisodiametric -- of spore sizes, the average length divided by the average width has a value from 1.16-1.27: with isodiametric spores this value is 1.0-1.15, and with heterodiametric spores it is greater than 1.27

Subpellis -- the layer that separates the pellis from the trama; often considered the same as the hpoderm

Substrate -- the material that a fungus is growing on

Substratum -- substrate, the material that a fungus is growing on

Subtomentose -- with a somewhat dense layer of matted down or soft hairs; or like a newly sheared lamb

Subulate -- awl-shaped (subula = awl); of cystidia, swollen between the middle and the slightly tapered base and pointed at top

Subviscid -- slightly sticky, thinly viscid

Sulcate -- grooved, furrowed

Superior -- of a ring, forming on the upper part of the stem

Suprahilar disc -- same as plage

Suprapellis -- the outermost layer of the pellis, it may be undifferentiated (cells not distinct from those of underlying flesh), derm (cells arranged perpendicularly to surface), or cutis (cells arranged more or less parallel to surface)

Synonym -- another name for the same species, especially an earlier or illegitimate name not currently used for the species; if two or more names are based on the same type, they are homotypic synonyms, sometimes indicated by three horizontal lines between the two names, but if they are based on different types, they are heterotypic, sometimes indicated by two horizontal lines between the two names; in this program, alternate names following the primary name are earlier or later or illegitimate names representing all or part of the concept of the primary name: the primary name includes the alternate name, but the alternate name may not include the whole taxon represented by the primary name

Synonymous -- representing the same species

Synonymize -- subsume a species name under another species name

Tacky -- slightly sticky but not truly subviscid or viscid

Tan -- leather-colored, similar to undressed leather

Taproot -- a root which grows vertically downward, narrowing from top to bottom

Tawny -- approximately the color of a lion, between yellow brown and rusty brown; used by some as more orange, fox-colored, equivalent to fulvous

Taxon (plural taxa) -- a named form, variety, species etc.

  Taxonomy -- The classification of organisms to show relationships to other organisms.

Tenacious -- tough

Terrestrial -- appearing to grow from the ground, or on the ground, as opposed to growing on wood

Terete -- of stem, cylindric or rounded; not compressed or irregular

Testaceou -- brown mixed with yellow or red, close to brick color, in Ridgway 1912, an orangy pink

Thick -- term used for width of stem, depth of cap flesh, or the distance between the faces of one gill

Tibiiform -- of cystidia, somewhat ventricose (wider in middle) with long narrow neck and apex swollen into a head, supposedly like the tibia bone

Tier -- in reference to subgills, group of subgills, interspersed with gills usually at regular intervals, each tier being of roughly a certain length

Tilleul buff -- pallid or whitish

Tissue -- a group of hyphae which are similar in shape or form

Toadstool -- a mushroom, especially a poisonous one

Tobacco brown -- the color of tobacco as it is found in a cigar or cigarette

Tomentose -- covered with soft hairs, often soft densely matted hairs, like a woollen blanket

Tomentous -- same as tomentose

Tomentulose -- covered with short fine hairs or fibrils, which may be matted like a thin woollen blanket or erect according to different authors' interpretations; nearly tomentose but less than subtomentose

Tomentum -- a covering of densely matted woolly hairs

Tomentose -- Having very minute fine hairs on the surface. See Photo Below.

Toothed -- serrate on the edges; toothlike on the edges; of gills, with toothlike edges or decurrent by a short tooth

Tough -- strong, able to resist stress

Trama -- the tissue under the surface cell layers of cap, stem, or gills, usually referring to the flesh (context) as seen through the compound microscope

Translucent -- transmitting light diffusely, semitransparent

Translucent-striate -- refers to a cap that allows some light to pass through and which, as a result, shows the gills as darker radiating lines in the translucent area

Trichoderm -- a "cuticle" with hair-like elements projecting from the surface under the compound microscope, more or less perpendicularly, forming a turf, the individual elements unequal in length

Trichodermium -- same as trichoderm

Tricholomatoid -- resembling in general form the genus Tricholoma, with notched gills, fleshy-fibrous stem, and no ring or volva

Trimitic -- consisting of three kinds of hyphae: generative, binding and skeletal

Troops -- hundreds to even thousands of fruiting bodys growing within a few square yards

Trullisate -- resembling a small planting scoop

Truncate -- larger portion ending as if cut off, having the end square. Having a flattened or chopped off end like the end of a baseball bat.

Tubes -- See Pores.

Tuber -- a fleshy, lump-like or root-like stem base

Tubercle -- any wart-like or knob-like protuberance

Tuberculate -- with low bumps

Tuberculate-striate (or tuberculous-striate) -- of cap margin, furrowed radially with small bumps on the ridges

Tubular -- of stem, having the flesh empty of fibrils, same as fistulose or hollow; of hymenophore, composed of tubes, the opening of which is called a pore 

Tufted -- as used here, the same as caespitose; may also be used to mean a small cluster or stems clustered with a common base, see clustered, caespitose, connate

Tuning fork basidia -- basidia of the jelly fungus order Dacrymycetales, shaped like a Y or a tuning fork

Turbinate -- top-shaped; of cystidia, swollen at top, tapered from middle downward, becoming abrupt at base

Type -- the element on which the descriptive matter fulfilling the conditions of valid publication of a scientific name is based; in the case of mushroom species, the collection of fruiting bodys from which the original concept of the taxonomic group (e.g. family, genus, species, variety, etc.) is derived

Type collection -- a collection of fruiting bodys from which the original concept of the taxonomic group (e.g. family, genus, species, variety etc) is derived

Umber -- a deep dull dark brown, smoky brown; earth brown sometimes with a very slight reddish tinge

Umbo -- a raised knob or mound at the center of the cap

Umbrinous -- olive-brown; umber

Universal veil -- Material which completely covers the young immature mushroom

Uncinate -- refers to gills with a lower edge that curves up as it comes close to the stem, then abruptly curved down to leave a "tooth" on stem, not proceeding further down stem than the imaginary line running straight along the lower gill edge to the stem, but sometimes used as equivalent to decurrent with tooth"

Undulate -- wavy

Unicolorous -- of one color

Universal veil -- the enveloping veil initially covering the whole mushroom including the top of the cap: when it breaks, it may leave fragments on the cap or the stem, or a volva at the base of the stem

Uplifted -- the margin of the cap turning upward

Upturned -- the margin of the cap turning upward

Urceolate -- having the shape of a pitcher, with a large body and small mouth

Urticoid -- with a swollen base and a long gradually narrowed apex

Utriform -- of cystidia, with a slight constriction below a large round head, like a bladder, therefore bladder-shaped

Vaginatoid -- applied to any mushroom with free or finely adnexed gills, a volva, and lacking an annulus

Velutinous -- velvety

Variety -- (abbreviated var.) a consistent appearing variation of a species, with more variation than a form, sufficiently hereditary as to characterize homogeneous populations

Variety -- (abbreviated var.) a consistent appearing variation of a species, with more variation than a form, sufficiently hereditary as to characterize homogeneous populations

Veil -- referring either to the partial veil which joins the stem to the cap edge at first, and often breaks to leave a ring on stem and remnants hanging from the cap margin, or the universal veil which initially covers the whole fruiting body including the top of the cap, always breaking and sometimes leaving fragments on the cap or the stem, or a volva at the base of the stem

Velar -- of the veil

Velum -- same as veil

Velutinous -- like velvet

Ventricose -- wider in the middle

Vermilion -- a bright red color with a strong orange tinge

Verona brown -- dull cinnamon, dull reddish cinnamon

Verrucose -- with warts; or with outgrowths smaller than if warted but larger than if verruculose (as used here, warty includes verrucose and verruculose) 

Verruculose -- with moderate outgrowths smaller than if verrucose

Versiform -- with various shapes

Vesiculate -- of cystidia, with entire cell swollen or appearing inflated like a large sac or bladder (vesicle), with only the base abruptly tapered

Vesiculose -- same as vesiculate

Victoria lake -- deep red

Villose -- covered with long soft, weak hairs that collapse readily

Villose-tomentose -- having a densely matted layer of long, soft hairs which collapse readily

Vinaceous -- the color of red wine or red wine stains; a paler or grayish red; dull pinkish brown to dull grayish purple

Vinaceous-drab -- purple-gray

Violaceous -- of some violet hue

Virgate -- markedly streaked or striate, usually with dark-colored groups of fibrils, giving the appearance of bearing many small twigs

Vitelline -- egg-yellow

Volva -- the remains o f the universal veil found at the base of the stem, usually in the form of a sac, collar or concentric rings. A sac-like structure formed at the base of a stipe, such as that found in Amanita species.

Warm buff -- pale yellowish buff

Warm sepia -- dark dull vinaceous brown, dark dingy cinnamon

Wart -- bumpy outgrowth found on caps, stems, and spores, which on caps and stems is generally somewhat wider than high

Warts -- Common in the Lepiota and Amanita species, see the photos below, notice the warts on the caps.

Waxy -- appearing as if coated with wax

Well-spaced -- referring to gills, corresponds to distant

White rot -- a rot that removes both lignin and cellulose

Wood brown -- dark avellaneous

Y-shaped basidia -- basidia of the jelly fungus order Dacrymycetales, shaped like a Y or a tuning fork

Zonate -- with circular bands of differing colors or ornamentation. Having a zoned appearance, usually referring to a mushroom cap that has concentric color bands that give it a zoned appearance. Common in Lactarius.

Zoned -- same as zonate

Is there a term that is not on this page? If so, please advise me so that I can add it! Thanks - Chris M

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