A Selection of Wild Mushrooms by Color

Throughout history, mushrooms have been used for its nutritional and medicinal properties. In modern medicine, mushrooms-derived compounds are the basis for antibiotics and folk medicines, such as traditional Chinese medicine, use them also for health issues.

They can be farmed or gathered in the wild but it's advised not to consume wild mushrooms when not knowing for sure if they are safe, due to the fact that many species are poisonous and can even cause death.

Fungi and bacteria, are very important for most of the recycling of organic material, like dead plants and animals. Widely used in the production of many aliments such as cheese and bread, they are also responsible for losses of stored food, what represents an issue when food storage is required.

Nowadays they are also used for controlling insect pests, as in crops, what is a much cheaper and eco-friendly substitution of pesticides.

Other species, known as magic mushrooms, have psychedelic properties and are ingested for recreational or religious purposes.

Fungi are colorful, bright, beautiful and unusual. Below you can see some examples of the very different colors and forms that fungus may have.

Lactarius indigo, also known as the indigo milk cap, is an edible species that can be found mainly in southern and eastern North America. We can find them on sale in markets, specially in Mexico, Guatemala and China.

Craterellus cornucopioides, is an edible mushroom, also known as the trumpet of the dead.

A possible origin for this name is that the growing mushrooms were seen like trumpets played by dead people under the ground.

There are over 70 species of bioluminescent fungi known. The intensity of their luminescence is low compared to many other bioluminescent organisms, but they are able to glow continuously for days. Luminous fungi are found growing on decaying wood, leading to the popular name of "glow wood".

Possibly Orange pholiota. A very common mushroom found in dense clusters at the base of stumps or old trunks of decideous trees. Near to Milton, Highland, Great Britain

Clavulinopsis corallinorosacea is an orange coral fungus growing on forest floor in Mount Field National Park, Tasmania, Australia.

This image was selected as picture of the day on the English Wikipedia for November 7, 2010. It is considered one of the finest images on the English Wikipedia. If you think this file should be featured on Wikimedia Commons as well, feel free to nominate it.

Amanita muscaria is a psychoactive mushroom, one of many in the genus Amanita.

The mushroom was used as an intoxicant and entheogen by the peoples of Siberia, and has a religious significance in these cultures.

Clavulinopsis fusiformis It's a not edible mushroom found in Europe amongst grass on heaths.

The specific epithet fusiformis, derived from Latin, means "spindle-shaped". It is commonly known variously as "golden spindles", "spindle-shaped yellow coral", or "spindle-shaped fairy club".

Laccaria amethystina, commonly known as the amethyst deceiver, is a small brightly colored mushroom, that grows in deciduous as well as coniferous forests. The mushroom itself is edible, but can absorb arsenic from the soil.

Calvatia gigantea commonly found in meadows, fields, and deciduous forests, grow to be 10 to 70 centimetres in diametre, but can reach up to 150 centimetres.

The large white mushrooms are edible when young.

In medicine, it has long been used as wound dressing and It is also the main source of the anti-tumor mucoprotein calvacin, which unfortunately is present only in tiny quantities.