Common name Where given, these are taken from the the British Mycological Society (BMS) website.

Latin name and author accreditation Species names and attributions are as per the BMS Checklist of the British & Irish Basidiomycota N.W. Legon and A. Henrici with P.J. Roberts, B.M. Spooner and R. Watling, published by The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 2005. The names and authors for the Ascomycetes are drawn from the BMS website checklist.

Cap/bracket/fruit body Details of size, shape, colour, and texture. Bracket sizes are side-to-side by front to back.

Stem Details of size, shape, colour, firmness, and texture.

Gills/tubes/pores Details of shape, density, colour.

Spores Details of spore size in µ (microns), colour of print, and other microscopic or small features.

Habitat Where the fungus is found – in woodland, on trees, amongst grass, etc. – when, and how commonly. Seasons are used rather than months, as the months do not have the same rainfall and temperature over the whole of our area. The frequency is for the British Isles, based on the number of collections of each fungus in the Kew Herbarium. This information may not be totally reliable, as not all reports have been verified by professional mycologists, but it gives a reasonable picture of the incidence over the years.

• 1–25 Very rare
• 26–50 Rare
• 51–150 Uncommon
• 151–450 Occasional
• 451–850 Frequent
• 851–2,000 Common
• Over 2,001 Very common

Also under the frequency heading I have included a note about the endangered species now being assembled into a Red Data List. All the frequency information comes from the British Fungi database hosted by CABI for the BMS and is correct at the time of going to press. The website address is: http://194.203.77.76/fieldmycology

Edibility At the end of each profile I have highlighted all the choice and good edible fungi, and also the poisonous and deadly poisonous fungi. There are also many fungi which are not normally eaten for a variety of reasons: too small, too tough or woody, or having an unpleasant taste or scent; these I have tended to classify as ‘Not edible’. Some genera also contain species known to contain toxins, such as Cortinarius, Inocybe, Entoloma, and Hebeloma, and all members of these genera are potentially poisonous.