How to tell Ramaria flava from Salmon coral

There's no true cap. The fruiting body is bushy and coral-like, 5 to 20 centimetres tall and wide, with a thick, fleshy whitish base from which many tightly bunched branches reach upward. The tips are blunt, forked or many-toothed. The branches are sulphur-yellow, lemon-yellow or golden, paler and whitish at the base; with handling and age the mushroom turns brown or develops reddish spots.

There is no cap as such. The fruit body is bushy, 7 to 20 cm tall, occasionally up to 30 cm, and up to 15 cm across. Branches rise densely from a thick base and fork several times. The branch tips are slender, less than half a centimetre wide.

Young branches are salmon pink, orange-pink or pinkish ochre with yellow tips. The colour is very variable and fades quickly: old specimens turn ochre, and then colour no longer separates them from other corals.

The smooth spore-bearing surface covers the whole surface of the branches, and that's where the spores form. There are no gills, tubes or spines. The spore print is ochre-yellow. A smooth fertile layer on yellow branching arms is typical of coral Ramaria species.

There are no gills or pores. The smooth spore-bearing surface covers the branches on all sides.

The spore print is ochre yellow. The spores are elongated, 8–15 × 4–6 µm, with small warts that run together in lines. Spores and other microscopic features are what reliably separate the salmon coral from its lookalikes.

There's no distinct stem; its role is played by a thick, fleshy whitish base (trunk) from which the branches spread. The base is dense and may turn brown or pinkish when touched or damaged. The whole fungus is fleshy and rather brittle, especially when mature.

There is no separate stem. The branches grow from a thick, fleshy base that is whitish or paler than the branches. There is no ring and no volva.

The flesh is whitish, fleshy and brittle, and may slowly turn brown or pinkish when cut or handled. Vienna's mushroom advice service describes the taste as bitter. We advise against eating it: its laxative lookalikes are often told apart only under a microscope.

The flesh is white, pinkish or pale orange in the middle, and tough and rubbery in the branches. It can turn wine red or blackish where broken or pressed. Field guides describe the taste as bitter.

The smell is faint and pleasant, or grassy and mushroomy, with no sharp notes. Scent isn't a defining feature: you recognise this one by its yellow coral-like body with blunt forked branch tips and its whitish fleshy base.

The British guide First Nature describes the smell as not distinctive, while English Wikipedia calls it unpleasant. Smell is no help in identifying it.