How to tell Ramaria flava from Pallid 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. The fruit body is bushy, 5 to 15 cm tall and wide, occasionally up to 20 cm, with dense, repeatedly forking branches.

The colour is pale: cream branches like milky coffee and a whitish base. Young branch tips are blunt, finely toothed and faintly lilac-pink. The whole fruit body fades further with age.

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 pale yellow. The spores are elliptical, 9–12 × 4.5–6.5 µm and finely warty. Only a microscope reliably separates it from similar corals.

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 rise from a thick whitish base. 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 and firm. Field guides describe the taste as mild to bitterish.

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 smell is faint: German guides compare it to soapy water or call it slightly sour, and a Swedish guide calls it spicy. It's of little help in identification.