Crested coralClavulina coralloides

The crested coral (Clavulina coralloides), long known in field guides as Clavulina cristata, is a small white coral fungus. It grows as a little bush up to 7 cm tall, and the tips of its branches split into fine, sharp teeth like a crest, which gives it its name. It's reported as edible: Norway's 2024 list of edible mushrooms includes it. But it's so slight and bland that it's rarely collected for food, and it doesn't appear on the German or Polish lists of edible mushrooms.

Colour and branch tips are the way to recognise it. The fruit body is white to cream, with a short base 1.5 to 2.5 cm tall from which the branches spread. The tips are crested and turn brown with age. It's often attacked by microscopic parasitic fungi that turn it grey or even black, which makes it harder to identify. We'd leave grey or blackened specimens alone.

What could you mistake it for? Above all, the pale corals. The pallid coral (Ramaria pallida) is also a light-coloured coral, but it's a laxative and larger: 5 to 15 cm, with a stout base, blunt lilac-tinged tips and a pale yellow spore print. The crested coral's spore print is white and its tips are sharp and crested. The wrinkled club (Clavulina rugosa) is similar too, but it barely branches and its branches are clearly wrinkled with rounded tips. If you aren't sure it's a crested coral, don't pick it.

The crested coral is mycorrhizal and grows on the ground under broadleaved trees and conifers, singly or in small groups, often beside woodland paths. It's common and widespread in western and northern Europe, with the most records from Britain and Sweden, and appears from summer to late autumn, sometimes into early winter.