30 October 2007 Buckinghamshire. Photograph copyright Leif Goodwin. Common Name Sulphur tuft Cap Convex, expanding with age, smooth, orange when young, then yellow with an orange brown centre, margin decorated with dark veil remnants, to about 6 cm across Gills Sinuate, crowded, greenish yellow when young, becoming purplish brown to purplish black with age Stem Cylindrical, scaly, yellow to yellow orange, apex pale yellow, faint dark ring zone present near the apex Flesh Firm, fibrous, yellow Smell Indistinct Taste Bitter Season All year Distribution Very common Habitat In clumps on dead wood from deciduous, and more rarely coniferous, trees Spore Print Purple brown Microscopic Features Spores ellipsoidal with a germ pore (6-8) x (4-4.5) µm2. Basidia 4 spored. Leptocystidia cylindrical, lageniform or utriform. Chrysocystidia present on gill face and edge, clavate to mucronate. Edibility Poisonous, possibly deadly. Symptoms of poisoning commence 5 to 10 hours after ingestion, and include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, excess protein in urine, vision impairment and paralysis. Notes The Latin name fasciculare means clumped or bunched 
November 2002. Photograph copyright Leif Goodwin. 
7 September 2008 Thursley Common, Surrey. Photograph copyright Leif Goodwin. |