Is this sulphur tuft or honey?

[Camilo]

I am pondering if this is Armillaria mellea (honey fungus) or Hypholoma fasciculare (suphur tuft). Or something completely different! Can anybody provide the clues needed?

[Chris Yeates]

please!

ponder away, but it is Flammulina velutipes - for clues look in any field guide

Chris

[Camilo]

My gratitude for your patience! It was the stems that were obliging me to tend to reject my first impressions. Thanks, it's how newcomers learn!

[fairplay]

With more experience, you will come to learn that Velvet Shank is almost confined to (but not exclusive to) dead Elm and appears very late in the season, whilst Honey Fungus attacks a wide variety of trees and shrubs but tends to grow October to mid November (it is still showing now, so there is some overlap) and Sulphur Tuft is extremely common and can be seen throughout the year almost.

That velvety stem is the key to identification here, plus it tends to grow higher up the tree than the others.

Neil.

[Camilo]

Thanks Neil -some really helpful tips. It was actually on elm, but at the base.

[RobSutton]

Originally Posted by fairplay

With more experience, you will come to learn that Velvet Shank is almost confined to (but not exclusive to) dead Elm and appears very late in the season .......

Neil.

That's interesting - there must be quite a lot of geographical variation in it's host. Up here it's almost exclusively on Ash, and I've always thought of it as being an Ash specialist and very rarely find it on anything else - but then again we don't get much Elm. Are Ash and Elm closely related?

[Ditiola]

I read somewhere that this genus is currently being investigated by taxonomists, so I would not be surprised if we end up with several species

Peter

[Johnny81]

Originally Posted by Ditiola

I read somewhere that this genus is currently being investigated by taxonomists, so I would not be surprised if we end up with several species

Peter

Noooooooooooooooooooo

[fairplay]

Originally Posted by Johnny81

Noooooooooooooooooooo

Oh yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees, I heard that too !

Several times I have come across 'Velvet Shank' in the late summer, AND growing singly. So something is going on and needs looking at.

I never knew though that in some parts (most ?) of the country, Ash is the main host.

Neil.

[Ditiola]

I have just had a quick look at records on the FRDB and in just 5 pages in the middle of the list, it is recorded on 21 different genera of trees.

Peter