Sulphur Tuft vs Brick Cap
Hypholoma fasciculare compared with Hypholoma lateritium — how to tell them apart in the field.
This is a dangerous confusion.
At least one of these species is toxic. Never eat a wild mushroom based on a photo comparison alone — verify with local experts.
How to Tell Them Apart
A related species considered edible in some regions. Brick Cap has a brick-red to reddish-brown cap center (not orange-brown), lacks the greenish gill tinge, and has a milder (not intensely bitter) taste. Also grows in clusters on dead wood.
The most common confusion species. Cap is sulfur-yellow to greenish-yellow — NOT brick-red. Gills turn greenish-black with age (Brick Cap gills go purplish-brown). Taste is intensely, unmistakably bitter — if you nibble a tiny piece and spit it out, the bitterness is immediate and lingering. Toxic, causing severe gastrointestinal distress and potentially liver damage.
Side-by-Side Identification
| Trait | Sulphur Tuft | Brick Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Cap | 2-7 cm across. Convex, becoming broadly convex to flat. Sulfur-yellow at the margin, deepening to orange or tawny-brown at the center. Surface smooth, sometimes with faint veil remnants at the margin when young. | 4–10 cm across, convex when young, flattening with age. Brick-red to reddish-brown, darkest at the center, fading to pale tan or yellowish at the margins. Surface smooth and slightly moist. Young caps often have whitish veil remnants hanging from the edges. The brick-red coloring is the most distinctive feature — Sulphur Tuft is sulfur-yellow, not red. |
| Gills | Adnate (broadly attached to the stem). Start sulfur-yellow, then turn greenish-yellow, and finally darken to purple-brown as spores mature. The green tinge in mid-development is distinctive. | Attached to the stem (adnate). Pale yellowish-white when young, becoming olive-grey, then purplish-brown as spores mature. This color progression is important — Sulphur Tuft gills turn greenish-black. Crowded and thin. |
| Stem | 5-10 cm tall, slender, curved, sulfur-yellow above and brownish below. Fibrous, often with faint ring zone from the veil. Hollow or stuffed. Grows in dense clusters with stems fused at the base. | 5–12 cm tall, 0.5–1.5 cm wide. Pale yellowish above, darkening to rusty brown toward the base. No true ring (annulus), but may have a faint fibrous zone from the partial veil. This is critical: the Funeral Bell has a distinct membranous ring. If you see a proper ring, stop and re-examine. |
| Spore print | Purple-brown to dark violet-brown. | Purplish-brown to dark purple-grey. |
| Odor | Mushroomy but not distinctive. The intensely bitter taste is a more useful identification feature than the smell. | Mild and pleasant, slightly mushroomy. Not distinctive. Importantly, it lacks the unpleasant bitter smell of Sulphur Tuft. |
| Habitat | Saprotrophic on dead wood, especially stumps, fallen logs, and buried roots of both broadleaf and coniferous trees. One of the most common wood-decay fungi in temperate forests. Found in all types of woodland, parks, and gardens wherever dead wood is present. | Grows exclusively as a saprobe on dead hardwood — stumps, fallen logs, and buried roots of oak, beech, maple, birch, and other deciduous trees. Almost always in dense overlapping clusters of 10–50+ fruiting bodies. Occasionally found on conifer wood but this is unusual. Common in deciduous and mixed forests, parks, and old orchards. |
| Season | Year-round, though most abundant from September through November. Can fruit in any month during mild weather. | Autumn through early winter, typically September to December. One of the later-fruiting woodland species — often still producing well into November when many other mushrooms have finished. Tolerates light frosts. |
Found one of these in the wild? Don't rely on memory — identify it from a photo with Orangutany and check it against both species before you touch it.