Conifer Tuft

Description

The conifer tuft is a medium-sized mushroom with a cap 3–7 cm across, mustard- to ochre-yellow, with a darker, rusty-yellow centre. The gills are whitish in young fruiting bodies, then grey-violet, and dark violet-brown in old ones; they never have a green tint. The stem is thin, yellow-cream to yellow-brown, darker at the base.

It grows in clusters on rotting coniferous wood, most often spruce, usually in late autumn, but fruiting bodies may appear all year round, also in winter. It is common but rarely collected.

It can be confused with the poisonous sulphur tuft (greenish gills, acrid taste) and with the deadly poisonous funeral bell. Therefore only experienced mushroom pickers should collect it. If you are not sure of the species, do not pick or eat it.

Identification features

Cap

Diameter 3–8 cm (descriptions give different ranges); young hemispherical, then flat-convex, often with a small inconspicuous umbo, finally flat. Margin mustard-yellow to ochre-yellow, centre darker, rusty-yellow. Margin smooth, in young fruiting bodies joined to the stem by a cobweb-like veil. Sometimes sticky.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Gills fairly crowded, broadly attached to the stem; whitish or pale orange-yellow in young ones, then grey-violet (bluish, never greenish), dark violet-brown in old ones.

Stem

Height 4–12 cm (descriptions give different ranges), thickness 3–5 mm, cylindrical. Colour from light cream-yellow to yellow-brown, without green tints; darker at the base (rusty-yellow to rusty-brown). In young ones covered with faintly visible white fibrils.

Flesh

Pale brown or yellow, slightly darker in the stem than in the cap. Mushroomy smell. Mild taste (unlike most Hypholoma species, which are bitter or acrid). Do not use taste as an identification feature — the related sulphur tuft is poisonous.

Spore print and spores

Spore print rusty-brown, dark burgundy to brown. Spores smooth, ellipsoid, 8–9 × 4–5 µm.

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. A saprotroph on rotting coniferous wood, especially spruce; grows in clusters, gregariously, e.g. on old stumps.

Distribution. Common in Central Europe, frequent in Poland; also found in North America and Asia. Fruiting bodies appear all year round (also in winter when there is no snow). It is not legally protected in Poland.

Fruiting. Most abundantly in late autumn; fruiting bodies may appear all year round, least often from May to August.

What can it be confused with?

• Hypholoma fasciculare (sulphur tuft) — Poisonous. Gills greenish (in the conifer tuft bluish/grey-violet, never green); taste acrid and bitter, and the cap and stem have greenish tints.
• Galerina marginata (funeral bell) — Deadly poisonous. Fruiting bodies smaller, fragile, rusty-brown; it has a ring and a rusty-brown spore print.
• Hypholoma radicosum (rooting Hypholoma) — Gills grey-olive-brown, flesh bitter, stem rooting.
• Kuehneromyces mutabilis (sheathed woodtuft) — Mentioned as a species it is confused with; detailed differences — no data.
• Species of the genera Pholiota and Flammula — Mentioned as similar; detailed differences — no data.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• Fries described it as early as 1818 as Agaricus capnoides; formerly it was placed in the genus Psilocybe (mild Psilocybe, “łysiczka łagodna”).
• What distinguishes it from the poisonous sulphur tuft is the gill colour: grey-violet instead of greenish.
• It grows in Europe, Asia and North America.