Sulphur Tuft - Hypholoma fasciculare

Another day, another nature reserve.
I found Forest Farm & Glamorgan Canal Nature Reserve completely by chance, as I saw it on the map when working out how to get somewhere else. As I had a couple of hours to spare, I thought I'd take a little stroll to see what was there, and I was awestruck with how beautiful it is. It's a really big reserve, so I didn't get very far, but what I managed to see was breathtaking. There's a canal path that you can walk along, a public footpath that goes through a wooded area, or open fields. Along the wooded path there are the sounds of lots of different birds and the smell of wild garlic. And, to my delight, lots of species of fungi.

As I came across a rotting stump, there was no way I could have missed the clumps of Sulphur Tuft, or Hypholoma fasciculare.

Aptly named, they are sulphur yellow in colour and grow in tufts on dead wood, pretty much all year round. They have a very distinctive mushroom smell, and their gills are crowded and adnate.

Their spore print is a purple-brown colour.

They are very similar to the Brick Tuft, however as Brick Tuft fruits in the autumn, these bright shrooms are definitely Sulphur Tuft.

Characteristics

Habitat: On dead wood, in tufts
Cap: 2-7cm across, convex, sulphur yellow colour, turning tan towards the centre
Stem: 4-10cm long, usually curved, sulphur yellow near the cap, turning brown towards the base
Gills: Adnate, crowded. Sulphur yellow, then olive-green, before becoming dark brown
Spore print: Purple-brown
Season: All year
Edibility: Poisonous

An important part of our ecosystem, saprotrophs such as Sulphur Tuft are always exciting to find. And I'm looking forward to returning back to the reserve for some more mushroom hunting!

Disclaimer: I am not an expert. Never eat a mushroom you've found without confirmation that it is edible by an expert.

Comments

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