Coral Fungus

2023 February 19

Here’s another kind of fungus that we found around Lake Perrault on August 27, 2022. These are a type of “coral fungus”, because their shape resembles certain types of branching coral.

Looking through the various types of coral fungi, I think these are most likely Clavaria_fumosa, a common fungus in the cooler parts of Europe and North America. They commonly grow in leaf litter on the edges of woodlands, which is pretty much where we found these. The individual stalks were only a couple of inches long, so they aren’t particularly large.

These are apparently not toxic or anything, but they reportedly don’t have much flavor, either. And since they are small and not terribly common, nobody much collects them to eat. I expect they fall pretty firmly into the “edible, but who would want to?” category.

I expect that when they fully ripen, they probably turn to mush to scatter their spores.

One Response
  1. February 22, 2023

    They’re appropriately named. They remind me of things I’ve seen diving.

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