Coral Tooth Fungus

Hericium coralloides

On maples, oaks, poplars, at injured parts of trees. Summer, autumn.

Annual. Fruiting bodies 20-40 cm across, branched, fleshy, soft, made up of many coral-like, brittle branches with soft, pointed spines 0.5-1.5 cm long hanging from the underside; when young the spines are white, when old brown. Flesh soft, white, turning brown on drying, like the whole mushroom. Characteristic features: white, coral-like branched fruiting bodies growing on dead wood of deciduous trees. Edible when young, but of low value. Rare, listed in the Red Data Book of Lithuania.