>>1518606Oh I see. The hardest thing about IDing something is first knowing what to look for then knowing what literature to look at.
There are many good websites out there but I recommend checking out:
https://www.mushroomexpert.com/https://mushroomobserver.org/They will have some basic information on what to look for and what to make notes on, for example the gills: what color are they, how are they connected to the stipe (stem), what is the spore print etc. Many times you need a microscope or even DNA sequences for precise identifications but often you'll get a close enough name, especially for the more common and larger/interesting fruiting bodies. For example the LBMs (little brown mushrooms) are a pain in the ass and I don't even bother with them.
My expertise is in the so-called molds and little cup fungi (ascomycetes), not mushrooms. This means I often do not know or can't remember the names of many mushrooms that amateurs can easily ID. It can be embarrassing because everyone expects a PhD mycologist to know all the mushrooms, but there are 1.5-5 million species of fungi and you can't know them all.
