Hypholoma fasciculare

The Sulphur Tuft or Sulfur Tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare) is a common woodland mushroom, often in evidence when hardly any other mushrooms are to be found. This small gill fungus grows in large clumps (Latin fascicularis = in bundles, clustered) mainly on stumps, dead roots or rotting trunks of broadleaved trees, more rarely on conifer wood.

Sulphur Tuft is bitter and poisonous; consuming it can cause vomiting ,diarrhoea and convulsion , and the death case by this mushroom is reported in Japan. The principal toxic constituent is Fasciculol E and F.

Synonym: Nematoloma fasciculare or Naematoloma fasciculare - see Hypholoma. Another English name is Clustered Woodlover.

Description

 * Cap: Smooth, sulphur yellow with an orange-brown centre, up to about 6 cm diameter.
 * Gills: Crowded, then later a distinctive green colour which results from the blackish spores on the yellow flesh.
 * Spore powder: Purple brown.
 * Stipe: Up to 10 cm long and hardly 1 cm wide, light yellow, orange-brown below, often with an indistinct ring zone coloured dark by the spores.
 * Taste: Very bitter (do not swallow) as raw. Not bitter when cooked, but still poisonous.