Upright Coral
Ramaria stricta
Also called strict-branch coral, straight-branched coral, stiff coral
A tan to ochre coral fungus whose narrow branches rise almost perfectly parallel and vertical from a wood-anchored base. White cords at the base and a brownish bruising reaction are typical.
Overview
Upright Coral is instantly recognisable among the branched fungi by its posture: the branches are stiff, slender and rise in near-parallel columns rather than spreading outward, giving the cluster the look of a bundle of pale organ pipes. Clusters are usually 4-12 cm tall and often noticeably taller than wide.
The species belongs to Ramaria (Gomphaceae), but unlike most of its relatives it is not a root partner of trees. It is a wood decayer, and this ecological difference is mirrored in the field by its habit of erupting directly from stumps, fallen trunks, buried roots and woodchip.
Because it is widespread, tolerant of disturbed sites and fruits over a long season, Upright Coral is one of the most frequently encountered branched fungi in both natural woodland and managed landscapes such as parks and mulched beds.
How to identify it
Fruiting body
A tufted, upright cluster 4-12 cm tall and 3-10 cm wide, arising from a short whitish base that is often embedded in wood. The overall form is narrow and brush-like, with a flat to slightly rounded upper profile made by the crowded tips.
Branches and tips
Branches are slender, cylindrical, and repeatedly forked into parallel vertical segments with narrow, sharply V-shaped axils. Colour is pale ochre, tan, buff or pinkish-cinnamon, with the terminal points often a paler yellow when fresh. Tips are fine and pointed rather than blunt or crested.
Base, flesh and spore print
The base carries conspicuous white mycelial cords (rhizomorphs) that run into the wood substrate, an excellent confirming character. Flesh is whitish, tough and fibrous rather than brittle, and bruises wine-brown to purplish-brown where handled or cut. The spore print is pale yellow to ochre, and the surface of the branches may look dusted with pale spore powder in maturity.
Where and when it grows
This coral grows on and around dead wood: hardwood and conifer stumps, fallen branches, buried roots, sawdust piles and landscape woodchip. Where the wood is fully buried, clusters can appear to rise from bare soil, so a careful scrape at the base to trace the white cords down to the substrate is worthwhile.
It fruits from summer through late autumn, often several flushes in a season, and is widely distributed across Europe, North America and temperate Asia. Its tolerance of mulched beds and path edges makes it a common urban and suburban find as well as a woodland one.
Ecological role
Upright Coral is saprotrophic, breaking down the cellulose and lignin of dead wood and returning carbon and mineral nutrients to the forest floor. It contributes to the slow structural collapse of stumps and large branch wood, helping convert coarse debris into soil organic matter.
The rhizomorph cords at the base allow the mycelium to travel through soil between separate pieces of wood, letting a single individual colonise scattered fragments. Fruiting bodies are tough and persist for weeks, releasing spores gradually and providing shelter and a breeding substrate for springtails, mites and fungus gnat larvae.
Similar species
Most other Ramaria species grow from soil as mycorrhizal partners and have broader, more spreading branches; R. flava and R. formosa are both larger, more brightly coloured and lack the parallel, brush-like posture and the white basal cords. Ramaria apiculata is very similar but shows distinctly greenish tints at the branch tips.
Artomyces pyxidatus also grows on wood but its branch tips end in tiny crowns of three to six points, and it is white to pale cream with a white spore print. Clavulina coralloides is white, softer, finely crested at the tips, white-spored and grows from soil rather than wood.