Colour should be assessed on mature fruit-bodies in good light conditions (natural light is best). Immature lamellae are often very pale. Record this feature on mature lamellae, viewed side on, as in a cross-section of the whole fruit-body (not edge on, as when looking at intact lamellae when the fruit-body is turned over). When the lamellae are a mixture of colours, choose the predominant colour (so if mainly brown but orange near the edge, choose brown).

If the colour can best be described as a modification of one colour by another, you should usually choose the main colour. So, if the colour is reddish orange, choose orange, and if yellowish brown, choose brown. However, where there are tints of blue, green or purple, these states should be chosen.

Colour charts are referred to in capitals: BFF (Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, 1969), METHUEN (Kornerup & Wanscher, 1978) and RAYNER (Rayner, 1970).

The same colour name can be applied to different colours in different colour charts (compare apricot in BFF and METHUEN). If a colour is on the border between two of the categories (such as the orange yellow colour apricot, or the blue green colour verdigris) choose both colours.

Choose this state if: the lamellae are purple. Included here are colours such as lavender, mauve, lilac, violet and amethyst.

The colour vinaceous (often used in descriptions of fungi, and see BFF and RAYNER) lies at the border of purple and brown, and magenta is at the border of purple and red. For these colours choose one or both options according to the predominant impression of the colour.