Introducing the coral mushroom. Well, I say "the" but there are actually several species of mushrooms that very closely resemble the morphology of a sea coral you might encounter in the ocean. The members of the Clavariaceae family of fungi are beautiful mushrooms often laden with slender fingerlike often branching structures with hues of pink, purple or yellow. Though there are many species of edible coral, but the focus of this article is the identity of the "Crown Tipped Coral" or clavicorona (artomyces) pyxidata. It's a very common, relatively easy to identify mushroom that can be found throughout the summer and into the fall after rain storms.
How to identify Crown Tipped Coral?
If careful, differentiating crown tipped coral from other types of coral mushrooms, some of which can cause illness, is pretty straightforward. There are a couple of key identifiers for crown tipped coral. Number one: it grows on dead hardwood logs. Number two: it has the "crown tip" it gets its namesake from. This looks like 3 to 6 pointed tips at the tip of each of its branches. If it meets only those two criteria, I would say it is definitely a crown tipped coral. With that said, there's a caveat: those pointed tips can be difficult to discern. Also there are mushrooms that may not have the crown tips but might have branches close to the tip of an arm of coral that some might confuse for a crown tip.
Due to the subtlety of defining a "crown tip", let's go over a couple of other key defining characteristics. Crown tipped coral mushrooms are typically a creamy white color approaching beige at times and are relatively small, though many can grow in a large colony on a dead log, creating the appearance of a larger mushroom. Each individual "unit" is only about 2 to 3 inches tall typically and the collection of loosely branched arms is typically no more than 1 to 3 inches in diameter. These mushrooms are not only small but they are very delicate. The stem and each of the branches each have a diameter of less than an eighth of an inch.
A crown tipped coral mushroom always has branching arms that form a rounded elbow first perpendicular to the stem, then curving parallel to the stem and other branches. At each branch location, there are typically 2 or 3 branches and they are "loose" with gaps between branches allowing for ample room to compress them together. Another defining characteristic is that these mushrooms have a peppery taste if you nibble a small amount and then spit it out--though I do not typically use the "spit test" and in this case do not find it necessary to obtain a positive identification.
What are some of the "look alikes"?
There are many types of coral mushrooms that one might see and think is a crown tipped coral, more based on the fact that the mushroom is a coral than the fact that it at all resembles the particularities of a crown tipped coral mushroom. The Ramaria genus includes the poisonous "yellow tipped coral" mushroom, ramaria formosa. Yellow tipped coral is easily distinguished from crown tipped coral by the fact that it has much thicker flesh (a single branch can be 1/4 inch thick, with a very thick base. It is also typically more of a tan color and becomes a dirty yellow or sometimes almost orangish on the ends of the branches, as signified by the name. Ramaria formosa always grows on the ground and does not grow on dead logs--an easy way aside from the differences in flesh thickness and color to determine it is not a crown tipped coral.
Another species of Ramaria is the Straight branched coral mushroom, ramaria stricta. Some consider ramaria stricta to be edible, though others have reported it to cause gastrointestinal upset. I've seen two different forms of ramaria stricta. The first was a very small fragile branched mushroom with extremely dense, tight clusters of parallel branches (~1/16" diameter) growing from a pine stump in the boreal forest region of Minnesota. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture, but the photo of ramaria stricta in the National Audubon Field Guide to Mushrooms is the same morphology as this variant. The other variant (National Audubon calls ramaria stricta var. concolor) I have found is much more common, particularly in the southern part Minnesota and the majority of the midwest. I found it (as is apparently typical) growing from buried dead wood (hardwood or softwood). It grows in large clumps, with dense straight branches, and it is much larger with thicker branches (~1/8") than the northern version I found.
Other coral that grow on the ground or on wood truly do not look much like the crown tipped coral, but here are a few you might find while out in the woods.
How to use Crown Tipped Coral in the kitchen?
I read that you can eat crown tipped coral raw, but I tend to be conservative and cook all wild mushrooms. I have only cooked this mushroom once, mostly because I rarely find a large enough volume of intact mushrooms to consider it worth the effort. My approach was to toss it in a bowl with some oil and salt and bake them at high heat for a crispy mushroom topping. They pretty quickly went from raw to dark brown crispy filaments, which tasted fine. I have heard of it tossed in a ramen or other asian soup for a little added texture. I can't imagine they would not do well sauteed and mixed in to a pasta or stir fry of sorts. I'd love to hear what you cook up with these. Enjoy and happy hunting out there!