Gills

An overview of illustrations and explanations of different types of gills, which are extremely helpful for identifying mushroom species.

Illustrations taken from Wikipedia user Debivort with license: CC-BY-3.0.

Free

The gills do not have contact with the stem

Adnexed

The gills have some contact to the stem

Adnate

The discs have wide contact with the stem, whilst also growing at a similar angle to the stem.

Decurrent

The gills clearly grow down along the stem.

Subdecurrent

The gills are attached downwards along the stem, but only slightly. N.b this is not always visible.

Emarginate

alt. Recessed

The gills recess along the stem.

Sinuate

alt. Recessed with notches

Gill are recessed at the innermost part of the stem, but also a descent into notches along the stem.

Seceding

The gills are well established in young fungi, but in older specimins the edges will break away. You can sometimes see remnants of this still attached to the stem.