About this fungus
Wood Woollyfoot is a fungus in the Omphalotaceae family. Its habitat and field characteristics are summarised below.
A tough little litter mushroom with a buff to reddish-brown cap, widely spaced ochre gills and a wiry stem that wears a pale woolly boot around its base.
What to check
Look for broad, distant cream-yellow to ochre gills, a tough ringless stem and dense pale hairs or felt around the lower stem and base. Older caps become flat, thin and conspicuously wrinkled. The spore print is white and there is no volva.
Variation
Caps range from pinkish buff and yellow-brown to deeper reddish brown, fading and wrinkling as they dry. The basal wool can become soiled or partly hidden in leaf litter, so lift the whole base into view.
Lookalikes
Collybiopsis confluens usually grows in denser tufts, has more crowded gills and fine hairs extending farther up the stem. Laccaria species may share the colours and distant gills but lack the same tough, woolly-booted stem base.
Habitat and range
A litter-decaying woodland fungus on fallen broadleaf leaves and conifer needles, often among beech litter. It fruits singly, scattered or in loose troops across temperate regions.
Food safety
Inedible.
Photographs
James Lindsey / CC BY-SA 3.0
H. Krisp / CC BY 3.0