727 articles
Lactarius turpis
Lactarius turpis (Weinm.) Fr., the Ugly Milkcap, also published as L. necator and L. plumbeus, is a large olive-brown to blackish birch milkcap of the Northern Hemisphere, KOH-purple on the cap, non-edible due to the mutagen necatorin.
Lactifluus
Lactifluus is a genus of milk-cap fungi in the family Russulaceae, separated from the larger genus Lactarius in 2011; it contains several hundred mostly tropical species, many of them eaten.
Lactifluus and Lactarius species of the tropics and Australasia
Lactifluus and Lactarius species of the tropics and Australasia are milk-cap fungi, most belonging to the tropical genus Lactifluus, an ectomycorrhizal partner of trees across Africa, Asia, and Australasia.
Lactifluus piperatus
Lactifluus piperatus, the peppery milkcap, long known as Lactarius piperatus, is a white funnel-shaped woodland mushroom whose acrid milk once served as a pepper substitute.
Lactifluus volemus
Lactifluus volemus, the weeping milk cap (formerly Lactarius volemus), is an edible ectomycorrhizal Russulaceae fungus with a fishy smell and copious white latex; molecular studies show it is a worldwide complex of dozens of species, three in Europe.
Laetiporus
Laetiporus, chicken of the woods, is a genus of bright orange bracket fungi (Laetiporaceae, Polyporales) causing brown rot of trees; once one cosmopolitan species, DNA studies split it into many species across temperate and tropical regions.
Lecanora muralis
Lecanora muralis, also called Protoparmeliopsis muralis, is a lichenized fungus known as the chewing-gum lichen for its pale rosettes on urban concrete and paving slabs.
Leccinum
Leccinum, bolete genus of ectomycorrhizal fungi (Boletaceae) with scabrous stems, ~150 species, type L. aurantiacum, host-specific on birch and aspen across the Northern Hemisphere.
Leccinum aurantiacum
Leccinum aurantiacum (orange oak bolete), type species of the Leccinum bolete genus, an edible ectomycorrhizal fungus with broad host range (oak, poplar, birch, willow) and a nomenclaturally confused orange-capped species group.
Legal status of psilocybin mushrooms
Legal status of psilocybin mushrooms: Schedule I federally in the US since 1971, legalized for supervised therapeutic use in Oregon (2020) and Colorado (2022), spores federally uncontrolled, with medical access in Australia, Switzerland, Canada, and New Zealand.
Lentinula
Lentinula is a genus of white-rot Agaricales fungi (Omphalotaceae) containing shiitake, Lentinula edodes; about nine species, 15 phylogenetic lineages, Neotropical origin ca. 30 Ma, Fagaceae ancestral substrate.
Lepiota
Lepiota is a genus of about 400 small, scaly-capped gilled mushrooms known as dapperlings, in the family Agaricaceae, distributed worldwide, with some species deadly poisonous.
Lepiota brunneoincarnata
Lepiota brunneoincarnata, the deadly dapperling, is a small Agaricaceae mushroom containing amatoxins like the deathcap; it causes fatal liver failure, fruits in grassy European and Asian habitats, and is often mistaken for edible lookalikes.
Lepiota cristata
Lepiota cristata, the stinking dapperling, is a small toxic Agaricaceae mushroom with a scaly pale cap, foul odor, and white print of wedge-shaped dextrinoid spores; basionym Agaricus cristatus Bolton 1788.
Lepiotoid Agaricaceae
Lepiotoid Agaricaceae are the mushroom lineages of the family Agaricaceae with white spore prints, free gills, and a stem ring, covering genera historically placed in Lepiota, such as Leucoagaricus, Leucocoprinus, Macrolepiota, and Chlorophyllum.
Lepista
Lepista (blewits), genus of gilled mushrooms in Clitocybaceae with about 50 species, rough spores and pale-pink spore print; includes edible L. nuda, L. sordida; recently reclassified among Clitocybe and Collybia.
Lepista personata
Lepista personata, the field blewit (also Lepista saeva, now Collybia personata), is an edible saprotrophic mushroom of European and North American calcareous grassland, with a pale buff cap, violet-flushed stem, and pinkish-buff spore print.
Lepra (lichen genus)
Lepra is a genus of warty crustose lichens, mostly growing on tree bark, named by Scopoli in 1777 and revived in 2016–2017 for species formerly classified in Pertusaria.
Leptogium
Leptogium (Ach.) Gray, jellyskin lichens, is a gelatinous cyanolichen genus in Collemataceae with a Nostoc photobiont and a single-layer cortex distinguishing it from Collema; molecular work shows it is not monophyletic.
Leptosphaeria
Leptosphaeria is a genus of dothideomycete fungi in Leptosphaeriaceae (Pleosporales), type species L. doliolum, established 1863; includes L. maculans, cause of blackleg stem canker of oilseed rape.
Leucocoprinus birnbaumii
Leucocoprinus birnbaumii, the flower pot parasol or plantpot dapperling, is a small sulfur-yellow saprotrophic mushroom, the most common mushroom on indoor potting soil; harmless to plants but poisonous if eaten.
Leucocortinarius
Leucocortinarius, or White Webcap genus, is a small Agaricales genus type species L. bulbiger, a webcap-like mushroom with white spore print and bulbous stipe base; placed in Amanitaceae (Pluteineae) by 2024 phylogeny with low support.
Leucopaxillus giganteus
Leucopaxillus giganteus, the giant funnel (Aspropaxillus giganteus), is a large edible saprobic mushroom of Tricholomataceae forming grassland fairy rings, with caps to 45 cm, and a source of clitocine, antitumor polysaccharides, and antibacterial peptides.
Lichen
Lichen: stable symbiosis of a fungus with green algae or cyanobacteria, forming a thallus; about 28,000 species, mostly ascomycetes, nutrient-from-air organisms used as air-pollution bioindicators.
Lichen flora of Asia
The lichen flora of Asia is the combined set of lichenized fungi known from the Asian continent and its islands, with India alone holding about 14.8% of the world's species.
Lichen growth forms
Lichen growth forms are the broad shape categories into which lichens are grouped by their thallus: crustose, foliose, and fruticose, with many intermediate forms recognized.
Lichen product
Lichen products are distinctive extracellular secondary metabolites made mainly by the lichen's fungal partner (usnic acid, depsides, depsidones), plus harvested substances like orchil, litmus, oakmoss perfume extracts, and Iceland moss herbal medicine; roughly 800–1,050 compounds are known.
Lichen-forming ascomycetes
Lichen-forming ascomycetes are fungi in the phylum Ascomycota that form lichens through symbiosis with algae or cyanobacteria, comprising about 19,387 species and arising independently many times across the fungal tree.
Lichenicolous fungi of Cladonia
Lichenicolous fungi of Cladonia are non-lichenized fungi living on Cladonia lichens as parasites, commensals, or saprotrophs; a worldwide revision keys 138 species and documents 70 in detail.
Lichenicolous fungi of Iceland
Lichenicolous fungi of Iceland: fungi living on lichens. 144 species known per the 2025 Sveppatal III checklist (838 lichen-forming, 999 taxa total); flora resembles Scotland, Faroes, Greenland, Svalbard.