Colour should be assessed on mature fruit-bodies in good light conditions (natural light is best). When the stipe is a mixture of colours, choose the predominant colour (so if mainly black but dark brown below, choose black).

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 stipe is grey. Included here are colours such as mouse grey and smoke grey. If the colour is very pale with only a hint of grey, choose pale.