Nature & wildlife guide
Wild Mushrooms of Monteverde: A Cloud Forest Field Guide
From bioluminescent mushrooms that glow after dark to bright orange cups that appear overnight after rain, Monteverde's cloud forest is one of the most fungi-rich habitats in Costa Rica. Here's what grows nearby, season by season.
Costa Rica is thought to hold somewhere around 65,000 species of fungi, and only a fraction of those have ever been formally described. Monteverde's cloud forest, with its constant mist and humidity, is one of the country's richest pockets for them: everything from tiny parachute mushrooms scattered across the leaf litter to bracket fungi the size of dinner plates growing out of fallen trunks.
This guide walks through the mushrooms and fungi most characteristic of the Monteverde region, organized by the season you're most likely to see them.
A note on this guide. Two academic surveys conducted by the Monteverde Institute (in 2008 and again in 2010) recorded dozens of fungi species in Monteverde's cloud forest between 1,550 and 1,850 meters of elevation, the same band our reserve sits in. We haven't yet completed a formal species inventory of El Tesoro's own trails, so treat the species below as characteristic of the wider Monteverde cloud forest rather than a confirmed list for our property specifically.
Given the matching habitat, though, you have a genuine chance of spotting several of them here, and our guides can help you tell one from another on the Mushroom Tour or Night Tour.
When mushrooms fruit: Monteverde's fungi calendar
Monteverde's rainy season, roughly May through November, is peak fruiting time for most mushrooms. The constant moisture lets short-lived, soft-bodied species appear and vanish again within days. Fruiting activity tends to build through the middle of the rainy season and stays strong into October and November.
Dry season, December through April, is quieter for the delicate gilled mushrooms and cup fungi below, but it isn't empty. Woody, perennial fungi (brackets, shelf fungi, and dead man's fingers) persist on tree trunks and fallen logs year-round, rain or shine.
Rainy season · May–November
Rainy season spotlight
The soft-bodied, short-lived species below are at their most abundant once the rains settle in. Most last only a few days once they fruit, so timing and a guide who knows where to look make a real difference.
Hydnellum peckii
Bleeding tooth fungus
Easily the most striking mushroom on this list: a white to pale-pink cap that "bleeds" bright red droplets of liquid when it's young and moist. It grows on the forest floor, usually in mixed or conifer-associated woodland, and has been photographed and documented specifically in Monteverde. Despite the alarming look, it isn't dangerous to observe or photograph, just don't eat it.
Mycena spp.
Bonnet mushrooms
One of the most common mushroom genera in tropical cloud forest, and the one responsible for Monteverde's bioluminescent mushrooms: several local relatives of Mycena section Calodontes glow a faint green in total darkness. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve even has a trail named for the phenomenon, since fallen logs there glow visibly after dark during night tours. By day they're easy to overlook: small, delicate, growing in clusters on dead wood and leaf litter. By night, with the lights off, they're unmistakable.
Cookeina speciosa
Pink cup fungus
A vivid pink to salmon-colored cup, sometimes fringed with fine hairs around the rim, growing in small clusters on fallen branches and decaying wood. It's one of the most photographed fungi in Central American rainforest for good reason: it looks almost artificial against the dark, wet wood it grows on.
Sarcoscypha occidentalis
Stalked scarlet cup
A smaller, deep-red cousin of the pink cup fungi above, growing on twigs and bark rather than thicker branches. It's easy to miss (the cups rarely grow wider than a centimeter or two), but the color is hard to mistake once you spot one.
Favolaschia calocera
Orange pore fungus
A small, bright orange disc-shaped mushroom with a distinctive honeycomb of visible pores on its underside, instead of gills. It fruits directly on dead wood and rotting branches and tends to appear in small clusters after a good rain.
Marasmius spp.
Parachute mushrooms
Tiny, delicate, and typically the single most abundant mushroom genus in any tropical forest. A 2008 Monteverde Institute survey found that agarics (gilled mushrooms in general, this genus included) made up roughly half of all the fungi recorded in the reserve. Pale white, pink, or tan caps no wider than a coin, scattered by the hundreds across the leaf litter after rain.
Year-round · especially dry season
Woody fungi you'll find any time of year
Unlike the soft mushrooms above, these species are perennial and structural. Once they take hold on a trunk or log, they stay put for months or years, dry season included.
Ganoderma spp.
Shelf & bracket fungi
Hard, woody, shelf-shaped fungi that grow directly out of standing or fallen tree trunks, often in overlapping tiers. They can persist for years, adding a new growth layer each wet season. Look closely at an older specimen and you can sometimes count the rings.
Xylaria spp.
Dead man's fingers
Black, finger-like fruiting bodies that push up out of decaying logs and stumps, usually in small clusters. The name is unglamorous but accurate, and they're one of the easiest fungi on this list to identify at a glance, even for a first-time visitor.
Auricularia spp.
Wood ear
A rubbery, ear-shaped fungus that grows flush against dead branches and logs, usually brown or reddish-brown. It swells up soft and gelatinous after rain, then shrinks and toughens as it dries out, a good example of how the same fungus can look completely different a day apart.
See them in person
Walk our forest trails with a certified guide, visit our cultivation area, and search for wild mushrooms like the ones above in their natural habitat.
The best way to see them safely
One important rule: never eat a wild mushroom you can't confidently identify. Several toxic look-alikes grow in the same habitat as edible species, sometimes side by side, and correct identification takes real training, not a quick glance at a photo.
Curious how mushrooms like these are cultivated commercially rather than found in the wild? Our neighbors at Energía Fungi run their own cultivation and lab tours nearby.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Canitas, Monteverde
Ready to discover the forest?
Tell us your dates and group size and we will recommend the right tour, from a ten-hour trail pass to a guided night walk under the canopy.
