Crown coral or Candlesnuff fungus

There is no true cap. The fruiting body is coral-like and bushy, 4 to 10 centimetres tall, made up of many upright, branching twigs. Its most distinctive feature is the branch tips, which bear small crown-like cups with several toothed points around the rim, like tiny wreaths. It's white, cream or pale ochre when young, turns yellow with age, and browns when handled.

There's no cap. The fruit body, or stroma, is upright, cylindrical or flattened, often twisted, 3 to 5 cm tall, occasionally 8 cm, and 2 to 8 mm thick. It can be a simple spike, but it's usually forked at the top like antlers.

The lower part is black and finely velvety. In autumn the upper part is white or greyish, dusted with asexual spores. As the sexual spores ripen, the whole stroma turns black and tiny bumps with pores appear on the upper part.

The spore-bearing surface is smooth and covers the outside of the branches; there are no gills or tubes. The spore print is white. The crown-like toothed branch tips are the key diagnostic feature that sets it apart from other coral fungi.

There are no gills or pores. The spores ripen in tiny chambers just below the surface of the upper part of the stroma.

The spore print is black.

There is no distinct stem; the fruiting body attaches to the wood by a short shared base from which the branches fan out. The base is whitish, sometimes with felty mycelium. The whole structure is springy and fairly firm, like a brittle little shrub.

There's no separate stem: the black, velvety base of the stroma runs into the forked upper part.

The flesh is white, springy-fibrous and fairly firm. Young mushrooms taste mild, with a distinct peppery or slightly acrid note that turns into bitterness with age. The cut colour barely changes; only old fruiting bodies turn yellow and brown overall.

The flesh is thin, tough, springy and whitish. The stroma bends or snaps but is never jelly-like or slimy.

The smell is faint and mushroomy, with no sharp notes. It isn't a defining feature: you recognise this mushroom above all by its coral-like shape with crown-like toothed branch tips and by its growth on dead hardwood.

The smell isn't distinctive.