Features of a honey fungus mushroom
Cap – Honey-beige-brown in colour, usually smooth in texture on the upper surface but can be somewhat fluffy.
Gills – Membranes running radially across the underside of the cap are the gills. Honey fungus gills are pale. Some but not all of the gills will run all the way from the cap edge to connect to the central stalk (stipe).
Spores – Spores develop and are released from between the gills. The colour of the spores may be hard to tell while still inside the mushroom cap, but by making a spore print (see below) you can observe the colour more easily. Honey fungus mushrooms produce pale (white/cream) spores.
Annulus – A ring of tissue around the stalk (stipe). The species of honey fungus that occur in gardens all have annuli close to where the cap begins, but these can be difficult to spot and may only be present as wispy veils of tissue.
Stipe – The stalk is called the stipe. In most honey fungus mushrooms the stipe is the same width along its length (Armillaria gallica can have a bulbous base). The colour and patterning of the stipe vary, ranging from pale/pinkish/dark brown in colour, and smooth/stripy/scaled in pattern. The stipe is often hollow in the middle.