How to tell Strict-branch coral from Salmon coral

A bushy fruiting body with no cap, 5-10 cm tall and 3-7 cm across. The branches are thin, straight and parallel, rising vertically like a little brush or broom. The colour is ochre-yellow, becoming brownish-yellow to brown with age. The branch tips are thin, pointed and the same colour, often darker at the base.

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 spore-bearing layer covers the surface of the branches. The spore print is ochre.

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.

The shared base is short and thin, 1-3 cm tall and 0.5-1 cm across, ochre-white with fine felty threads at the bottom (where it attaches to the substrate).

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 thin, limp and yellowish. It quickly turns brown when pressed or cut, a characteristic reaction and an important identification feature. The taste is distinctly bitter and astringent.

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.

Faintly mushroomy with a hint of anise or fresh conifer cones.

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