Upright Coral Fungus

The color of the fruit body is brownish to yellow, becoming paler toward extremities. It bruises light reddish brown. The basidiocarp has a leathery texture when fresh, but becomes brittle when dry. Growing from a whitish base, the stipe is branched up to 8 times, the branches all upright and nearly parallel, each ending in 4 to 5 thornlike tips. Overall, the fruit body appears bushy, and is medium-sized, up to 10 by 7 cm (4 by 2+3⁄4 in). The stipe is single or branching from the base, with white mycelium and rhizomorphs radiating from the base. The odor is of anise and the taste is bitter. The spore print is dark yellow. The spores are roughly elliptical, dotted with low cyanophilous warts, and measure 7–10 by 3.5–5.5 μm. The basidia have basal clamps, are mostly four-spored, and sometimes have cyanophilous granular contents.

Variants. Several variants have been described:

var. alba var. concolor var. fumida var. violaceo-tincta

Similar species. Another widespread and common coral, R. apiculata, typically grows on conifer wood and bruises brown like R. stricta, but has green pigmentation. R. apiculata is a dull buff-tan to dull orange-brown and the young fruit bodies often have white branch tips. R. gracilis prefers conifer wood and has lighter colors than R. stricta. The tropical R. moelleriana can only be reliably distinguished from R. …

Ramaria stricta has a cosmopolitan distribution, and is a fairly common species. The fungus is lignicolous, common in late summer and fall in coniferous forests of the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountains. The fungus grows on dead wood, stumps, trunks, and branches of both leafy and coniferous trees. The form that grows on deciduous wood tends to be more orange and less bushy than those which grow on coniferous wood. The fruit bodies can form in "log lines" where decaying wood is buried underground near the surface or is in an advanced state of decomposition.

The fruit body has been described as "edible but unpalatable", but later field guides say it is inedible.

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