How to tell Brick tuft from Sulphur tuft

Cap 2–7 cm across, conical or bell-shaped in young mushrooms, then flattened. Sulphur yellow or egg-yolk yellow, often orange-brown in the center. Surface smooth, moist, without scales. Margin uneven, in young mushrooms joined to the stem by a cobwebby veil.

Cap 4-10 cm across, hemispherical with an inrolled margin when young, becoming convex with a low umbo over time. Color bright brick-orange, brick-red, darker toward the center to brownish orange, with a yellowish margin. Surface smooth, slightly slimy in wet weather. Often with whitish veil remnants along the cap margin.

Gills crowded, yellow or yellow-green at first, then darkening to gray-green or brownish olive — this is the key feature that distinguishes it from the edible honey fungus (whose gills are whitish or cream). Spore print purplish brown.

Gilled hymenophore — the gills are attached to the stem, moderately crowded. When young they are yellowish white, darkening with age to olive gray, then dark purplish gray as the spores ripen. Spore print dark purple-brown to blackish brown. They never turn bright sulfur yellow.

Stem thin, 4–10 cm tall, 0.4–0.8 cm thick, yellowish in the upper part, brownish or rusty below, fibrous. No ring, or a faint fibrous ring that soon disappears — the lack of a distinct ring sets it apart from honey fungus.

Stem 5-10 cm tall, 0.8-1.5 cm thick, cylindrical, often tapering toward the base. Color yellowish cream at the top, darkening with age to reddish brown toward the base. Surface with fine lengthwise fibers. The ring is faint — young specimens may have a thin fibrous ring zone, which disappears in older ones.

Flesh yellowish, thin, bitter-tasting — very bitter when raw. But cooking removes the bitterness while the toxins remain, so in a finished dish the mushroom won't give itself away.

Flesh firm and meaty in the cap, yellowish to pale cream. When cut it does not change color. Smell faintly mushroomy. Taste bitterish, especially in the stem and in older specimens — a diagnostic feature.

Smell mushroomy but indistinct, so it is of little help in identification.

Faintly mushroomy, neutral, with no distinctive notes. Older specimens have a slightly rancid note.