Sulphur tuft

Description

The sulphur tuft is a small mushroom with a sulphur-yellow cap with an orange or rusty-brown centre, usually 2–8 cm across. The gills are yellow in young fruiting bodies, then greenish, and finally violet-black. The flesh tastes very bitter.

It grows from April to December, in dense clumps of up to several dozen fruiting bodies, on stumps, dead roots and rotting trunks of deciduous and coniferous trees. In Poland it is very common, and is often seen when there are hardly any other mushrooms.

It is sometimes confused with the conifer tuft and with honey fungi, which grow in similar clumps. The sulphur tuft has greenish gills and very bitter flesh, but you must not rely on a single feature. If you are not certain of the species, do not collect or eat it.

Identification features

Cap

Diameter 2–8 cm, hemispherical when young, then convex to flat, with a small umbo in older ones. Surface dry and smooth. Colour yellow or sulphur-yellow, centre orange to rusty-brown, margin whitish.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Gills crowded, rounded at the stem (attached). At first sulphur-yellow, then dirty greenish, in older fruiting bodies violet-black (from the ripening spores). In very young ones covered by a thin veil.

Stem

Height 3–12 cm, thickness 3–10 mm, irregularly cylindrical, curved, hollow inside. Colour yellowish with a slight greenish tint, orange-brown below; covered (especially in the lower part) with brownish fibrils; often with an indistinct ring zone, darkly stained by spores. The stems in a tuft are fused at the base. Does not change colour when damaged.

Flesh

Thin, flexible, yellowish to sulphur-yellow, brown at the base of the stem; does not change colour when damaged. Taste very bitter — it must not be tasted; do not taste the flesh of this or any suspicious mushroom.

Spore print and spores

Spore print grey-violet, purple-brown to almost black. Spores smooth, ellipsoid (ovoid): 6–8 × 3.5–5 µm (descriptions give different ranges).

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Saprotroph on dead wood of deciduous and coniferous trees: stumps, dead roots, rotting trunks, sometimes on building timber. More often on deciduous wood. Grows in tufts of as many as several dozen fruiting bodies. Used in experimental studies to displace honey fungus from coniferous forests (see trivia).

Distribution. All continents except Africa and Antarctica; widespread in Europe, very common in Poland. Not legally protected in Poland.

Fruiting. From April to December (from spring to late autumn).

What can it be confused with?

• Hypholoma capnoides (conifer tuft) — Sometimes confused;. It does not have greenish-yellow gills (gills bluish to greyish), the taste is mild, and it grows only on coniferous wood.
• Hypholoma lateritium (brick cap) — Larger, more intensely coloured, cap brick-red in the centre; grows on deciduous wood; gills without a greenish tint.
• Armillaria mellea (honey fungus) — Sometimes confused; detailed differences: no data (honey fungi have a pale, white spore print).
• Kuehneromyces mutabilis (sheathed woodtuft) — Sometimes confused; detailed differences: no data.
• Galerina marginata (funeral bell) — Deadly poisonous; sometimes confused with tufts; 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

• It fruits from April to December in clumps of as many as several dozen fruiting bodies, often when there are hardly any other mushrooms.
• In experimental studies it was used to displace honey fungus, the cause of root rot, from managed coniferous forests.
• It appeared on the label of a Polish Post stamp of 31 August 2012 (the series "Mushrooms in Polish forests", face value 4.15 zł, print run 300,000).
• The Japanese name nigakuritake means "bitter kuritake".