Coral-shaped Mushrooms
To see pictures of more members of this group identified, click here.
This entry in the key will show you three different sorts of mushrooms. Hericium, the Lions Mane grows on cottonwoods in the fall and can be cultivated.
Another coral-shaped mushroom is the Sparassis, also called the cauliflower fungus, who knows why.
By far the largest group of large, coral shaped mushrooms is the Ramaria genus. They emerge from early June to August and are found in association with true firs.
These two corals turned up at Crested Butte. Both were pretty seriously faded. The yellow one is called largentii by the local guide, and grows in the same habitat we would find R. rasilispora in Montana. The longer-fingered, more salmon-hued and rather gray looking specimen on the right was also fairly frequent in the spruce zone. I advised against eating either one of these as they were well past their due-date.