Yellow stagshornCalocera viscosa

The yellow stagshorn (Calocera viscosa), also called the jelly antler, is a bright yolk-yellow to orange fungus that looks like a tiny set of antlers or a sprig of coral. It grows from the stumps, roots and buried wood of conifers, and it feels nothing like a coral fungus: it's springy, rubbery and slightly sticky, and it bends rather than snaps. It's a jelly fungus, related to the witches' butters, and while it isn't poisonous, it isn't worth eating.

How do you identify yellow stagshorn? The fruit body is 3 to 6 cm tall, occasionally 10 cm, and forks from a short base into slender branches with pointed, often forked tips. It's egg-yolk yellow to orange-yellow with a paler base, and it turns reddish as it dries. In wet weather the surface is greasy and sticky. Much of the fungus is hidden in the wood, rooting deep with a whitish base. The spore print is whitish to pale yellow. A rare white form also exists.

Where does it grow? On dead conifer wood: stumps and roots of pine and spruce, fallen trunks and moss-covered wood hidden under moss or litter. Even when it seems to grow from the ground, there's always wood beneath it. It's common and fruits through much of the year, but mostly from late summer to early winter, peaking in autumn.

Is yellow stagshorn edible? Not really: it's rubbery, tasteless and tiny. Most guides call it inedible, though a few list it as edible but poor, or as a splash of colour in mushroom dishes. We found no reports of poisoning. Lab tests on its extracts give no grounds for any health claim.

What can you mistake it for? Yellow coral fungi (Ramaria) are also yellow and branched, but they're brittle and fleshy, much bushier, mostly grow from soil and have an ochre spore print. Some corals cause stomach upsets, so don't pick a yellow coral unless you're sure. The small stagshorn (Calocera cornea) is tiny, under a centimetre, unbranched and grows on broadleaved wood. Meadow coral (Clavulinopsis corniculata) is yellow and branched too, but brittle and grows from soil in old grassland. Candlesnuff fungus is branched but black with white tips and tough. Yellow brain is a yellow jelly fungus, but shaped like a brain or folded petals, not antlers.

Its name viscosa means "sticky", and its yellow-orange colour comes from carotenoids, the same family of pigments as in carrots.