Cap color

When you see a mushroom in the forest, the first thing that catches your eye is the color of its cap. Red fly agarics, brown porcini, yellow chanterelles — coloring often becomes the main guide for beginners. But for a professional mycologist, cap color is an important yet highly unstable characteristic.

Why are mushrooms colorful?

Cap color comes from specific pigments in the mushroom's skin (cuticle). Unlike plants, which use green chlorophyll for photosynthesis, fungi don't need light to feed. Their pigments serve other purposes:

- Protection from ultraviolet light (dark melanins).

- Protection from being eaten by insects or animals.

- Attracting insects to spread spores.

The danger of identifying by "color"

David Arora warns sternly in «Mushrooms Demystified»: never identify a mushroom by cap color alone. Color is the most variable characteristic of a mushroom, influenced by dozens of factors:

1. Sun exposure (fading): A bright red brittlegill that grew in an open clearing under direct sun can fade to pure white or pale pink within a few days.

2. Hygrophanous caps: Many mushrooms (honey fungus, for example) are hygrophanous — they soak up water like a sponge. After rain, a honey fungus cap turns dark brown and translucent, and in dry weather it dries out to pale cream.

3. Age changes: A young bolete (Xerocomus) can be bright olive, while an old one turns dull brown.

M.Ya. Zerova notes that within a single species (for example, the death cap or the bare-toothed russula), cap color can vary from white to dark olive or wine red.

Questions and answers

If I only ever pick brown mushrooms (porcini, brown birch boletes), am I safe?

No! Brown is the most common color among mushrooms. Besides edible porcini and brown birch boletes, brown caps are found on deadly poisonous webcaps (Cortinarius), poisonous Tricholoma knights, inedible bitter boletes and toxic rollrims. Always check the hymenophor (the underside of the cap) and other features.

Are there poisonous mushrooms in beautiful, bright colors?

Yes, the best-known example is the red fly agaric. But the most dangerous mushrooms in the world (death cap, destroying angel, Galerina) have very modest, inconspicuous colors: pale green, white or dull brown. In the world of mushrooms, "bright" doesn't always mean "poisonous" (think of bright yellow chanterelles).

Sources

1.Зерова М.Я. та ін. Визначник грибів України. 1979
2.Roger Phillips. Mushrooms (Roger Phillips)
3.David Arora. Mushrooms Demystified
4.Index Fungorum