Community find
Sulfur Tuft
Hypholoma fasciculare
- Group
- gilled mushroom
- Spore print
- Purple-brown
- Size
- Cap diameter 2-6 cm; stipe 5-10 cm long and 0.3-1 cm thick.
- Season
- Typically found from spring through late autumn, or even early winter in milder climates.
- Habitat
- Grows in dense clusters on decaying wood of both broadleaf and coniferous trees.
- Distribution
- Widely distributed across Europe and North America; one of the most common woodland fungi.
- Key characteristics
- Convex to flattened cap with a sulfur-yellow to orange-brown center, greenish-yellow gills that darken to purple-brown with age, and a slender, crowded growth habit.
- Fruiting body
- Cap is 2-6 cm wide, smooth, yellowish with a darker center. Gills are crowded, initially sulfur-yellow then becoming olive-green and finally brownish. Stipe is 5-10 cm long, sulfur-yellow, often curved, and lacks a permanent ring but may have a faint veil zone.
- How to recognise it
- Look for the characteristic sulfur-yellow color and the diagnostic greenish tint in the gills. It almost always grows in tight clusters (tufts) on wood.
- Look-alikes
- Hypholoma capnoides (lacks green gill tint), Hypholoma lateritium (brick-red cap), Armillaria species (white spore print, distinct ring).
- Ecological role
- Saprophytic; it plays an important role in breaking down dead wood in forest ecosystems.
- Notes
- This fungus contains several bioactive compounds including fasciculols. It is highly resistant to many fungal diseases and is sometimes studied for its ability to compete with wood-rotting pathogens like honey mushrooms.
