1. Basidiospores borne on a smooth to wrinkled to variously shaped (spinose, coralloid, tubular or lamellar) surface (hymenium) which is exposed at maturity........……….........................................2

1. Basidiospores bearing surface (hymenium) not as above; basidiospores typically enclosed by a peridium (a skin-like to rind-like covering...........……....................................................................4

2. Basidiocarps gelatinous or with a gelatinous hymenium.......................Tremellales (the jelly fungi)

2.Basidiocarps not gelatinous........................................................................................................3

3. Basidiocarps typically fleshy and putrescent; hymenium borne on lamellae or lining pores and tubes ..…….………………………..................Agaricales (mushrooms & boletes), see further down

3. Basidiocarps usually tough and often woody; if fleshy, hymenium not borne on tubes or lamellae .............................………….........................................Apyllophorales (polypores & related forms)

4. Basidiocarps resembling nests with one or more small eggs (peridioles) inside……………………. ………………………………………………………………………….Nidulariales (bird-nest fungi)

4. Basidiocarps not as above.....…………..................................................................................5

5. Basidiocarp stipitate, with a foul-smelling mass (gleba) borne at the apex of the stipe at maturity .....................................................................................................................Phallales (stinkhorns)

5. Basidiocarp not as above...……………………………………………......................................6

6. Gleba (content) becoming dry and powdery at maturity; epigeous (growing above the soil surface .....................……...................................................................................Lycoperdales (puffballs)

6. Gleba (content) firm, gelatinous or slimy; often hypogeous (growing below the soil surface……. ...........................................................................Hymenogastrales (false truffles and related forms)

1. Basidiocarp reddish brown, brown, gray-brown, or near black....................................................2

1. Basidiocarp white, orange, yellow or pink to apricot colored..………………..............................4

2. Basidiocarp blackish, more or less pustulate (cushion-shaped), with numerous minute superficial "warts"..............................…...........................................................................Exidia glandulosa

2. Basidiocarp reddish brown to pale brown...............………………..........................................3

3. Basidiocarp large, thick, more or less cup-shaped, leaf-shaped or ear-shaped……………………. …………………………………………………………………………………Auricularia auricula

3. Basidiocarp smaller, irregular in shape, thin-lobed.....…..……............................Tremella recisa

4. Basidiocarp white or whitish....…….………………………………….......................................5

4. Basidiocarp some other color...…………….............................................................................8

5. Basidiocarp with teeth or spines on the underside of a sessile to laterally stipitate pileus………….. ........................................................……………................................Pseudohydnum gelatinosum

5. Basidiocarp without teeth or spines..………………………………............................................6

6. Basidiocarp terrestrial, erect, highly branched and more or less clavarioid (fungus coral-like)…….. ........................................................................................................Tremellodendron schweinitzii

6. Basidiocarp convoluted, more or less cerebriform (brain-like)...…………................................7

7. On soil, encrusting plants....…………………………………....................Tremella concrescens

7. On wood........……………………………..............................................Ductifera pululahuana

8. Basidiocarp erect.....….…………………...............................................................................9

8. Basidiocarp pustulate (cushion-shaped) to convoluted and more or less cerebriform (brain-like)… .………………………………………………….........………………………………………….12

9. Basidiocarp funnel-shaped to petal-like, pink to apricot-colored................Phlogiotis helvelloides

9. Basidiocarp not as above....……………………………...........................................................10

10. Basidiocarps flattened-anastomosing....……..........................................................Ditiola spp.

10. Basidiocarps cylindrical.......…………………………............................................................11

11. Small (2 cm or less in height), unbranched.......……….....................................Calocera cornea

11. Larger (2-10 cm tall), often branched......……………….................................Calocera viscosa

12. Collapsing when dried.....……………………................................................Dacrymyces spp.

12. Not collapsing, becoming hard ("horny") on drying..................................Tremella mesenterica

1.Hymenium (spore bearing layer) lining the inner surface of fleshy tubes)........................Boletaceae

1.Hymenium not as above………….…………………………………..…………………...……….2

2.Hymenium smooth to wrinkled or on thick, blunt-edged lamellae-like folds……...Cantharellaceae

2.Hymenium on true lamellae (gills)…………………...……………………………………………3

3.Spore deposit white, cream, yellow, lilac to violet, or green……………..…………………...…..4

3.Spore deposit not as above……….………………………………………………………………9

4.Lamellae free………………………………………………………….……………………….....5

4.Lamellae attached….………………………………………………………………………..……6

5.Universal veil (or volva) present, sometimes viscid and then present only as a viscid layer on the pileus and sometimes the stipe…………..…………....……….………………............Amanitaceae

5.Universal veil lacking; pileus dry to moist…………..…………………………….…..Lepiotaceae

6.Basidiocarps rather stiff and brittle, easily broken, breaking or snapping like a turgid vegetable; annulus always lacking; spores with amyloid (dark blue) warts in Meltzer's reagent……………… ………………………………………………………………………………………...Russulaceae

6.Basidiocarps brittle or not, but not breaking as above; annulus present or absent….……….....7

7.Lamellae thin, fragile, usually close………………………….…...........……….Tricholomataceae

7.Lamellae thick, waxy, often subdistant to distant….…………………….……………..……….8

8.Lamellae lavender or more or less flesh-colored; spores white to pale lilac in mass, roughened… ………………………….…....…………………………..……………………..Tricholomataceae

8.Lamellae not as above; spores white in mass, smooth…..………..……………..Hygrophoraceae

9.Spore print black to very dark grey……………………...……………………………...………10

9.Spore print some other color…………………………………………………………………….11

10.Lamellae decurrent; associated with conifers………………………………...….Gomphidiaceae

10.Lamellae free to attached, but not decurrent, often deliquescing at maturity……….Coprinaceae

11.Spore print pinkish to pinkish-brown……………………………………..…………………..12

11.Spore print some other color……..……………………………………………………..…….14

12.Stipe lacking; on wood……………………………..………………...…………Tricholomataceae

12.Stipe present……………………………………………………..……………………………13

13.Lamellae free; volva sometimes present; often on wood…………....Pluteaceae (=Volvariaceae)

13.Lamellae attached; volva always lacking; usually on humus or soil…………………………….. ………………………………………………………..……...Entolomataceae (=Rhodophyllaceae)

14.Spore print dark brown (chocolate-brown) to purple-brown………………………...………..15

14.Spore print some other shade of brown--rusty-brown, olive-brown, yellow-brown, cinnamon-brown, or clay-brown………………………………….....…………….………………………..16

15.Lamellae free…………………………………………………………………...…….Agaricaceae

15.Lamellae attached……..…………………………………………..…………….…Strophariaceae

16.Lamellae decurrent, readily separating from the pileus trama (context); spores clay color in mass; usually under conifers………….…………..............……………………….……………Paxillaceae

16.Lamellae not as above……………………………………………………………………….….17

17.Spore print yellowish-brown to clay-brown; basidiocarps always stipitate, often fragile or with free lamellae or both; cuticle composed of more or less isodiametric cells……………….Bolbitiaceae