Grey Coral
Clavulina cinerea
Also called ashy coral, grey coral fungus
A small, ash-grey to lilac-grey branched coral of woodland soil, with rather thick, blunt-tipped branches and a white spore print.
Overview
Grey Coral is the ashy counterpart of the common white Clavulina corals, forming tufts 3-10 cm tall of repeatedly forked branches in shades of grey, smoke, lead or greyish-lilac. It is a frequent though easily overlooked find in autumn woodland, where its muted colour blends into leaf litter.
The genus Clavulina belongs to the Clavulinaceae in the Cantharellales, an order that also contains the chanterelles and the hedgehog fungi. Members share smooth, pale spores, a white spore deposit, and basidia that bear two spores rather than four.
Identification within the genus can be genuinely awkward because the very common Clavulina coralloides frequently turns grey when parasitised. True Grey Coral, however, is grey from the start, evenly coloured throughout, and has stouter branches with blunter tips.
How to identify it
Fruiting body
A tufted, branched cluster 3-10 cm tall and 2-8 cm wide, growing from soil in small groups or scattered troops. Branches arise from a short, pale, tapering common base and the whole cluster has a soft, slightly greasy feel when moist.
Branches and tips
Branches are relatively thick, cylindrical to somewhat flattened, and irregularly forked. The colour is an even ash-grey, smoky grey or greyish-lilac, sometimes paler and more whitish at the very base. Tips are blunt and shortly forked into two or three points rather than finely crested.
Flesh and spore print
Flesh is greyish-white, brittle and thin. There is no dramatic colour change on cutting, though old material darkens overall. The spore print is white, and the spores are broadly elliptical to nearly spherical and smooth.
Where and when it grows
Grey Coral fruits from soil, moss and leaf litter in broadleaf and mixed woodland, favouring beech, oak and birch, and also occurring under conifers. It is often found on shaded banks, along path sides and in mossy hollows where litter stays damp.
The season runs from summer to late autumn, with the main flush in the second half of that period. The species is widespread through Europe, North America and temperate Asia, and while common it is easy to miss because its grey tones match the litter it grows in.
Ecological role
As with other Clavulina species, Grey Coral is considered ectomycorrhizal, associating with the fine roots of both broadleaf trees and conifers and exchanging soil-derived nutrients for photosynthetic sugars. This partnership ties the fungus to living woodland and explains why it never appears on stumps or logs.
The mycelium spreads through the upper soil and litter, binding particles and improving moisture retention. Fruiting bodies are soft and short-lived, releasing spores from their whole outer surface, and are readily disturbed by slugs and colonised by litter arthropods as they collapse.
Similar species
Clavulina coralloides is white with finely crested, antler-like tips, but frequently blackens from the base upward when infected by the parasite Helminthosphaeria clavariarum; such specimens differ from true Grey Coral in having uneven colour and retaining the crested tip structure. Clavulina rugosa is whitish, wrinkled and largely unbranched, with far fewer and thicker clubs.
Clavaria zollingeri is a distinctly violet-purple branched coral of grassland, much more vividly coloured. Ramaria fennica is larger and shows violet or grey-violet tones combined with an ochre-yellow spore print, whereas all Clavulina species deposit white spores.