How to tell Pallid coral from Salmon coral

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.

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.

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 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 is no separate stem: the branches rise from a thick whitish base. There is no ring and no volva.

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 white and firm. Field guides describe the taste as mild to bitterish.

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: 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.

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