Yellow-tipped Coral Fungus (Ramaria formosa)

I went out to North Douglas here in Juneau, and walked really far up Fish Creek to look for some more mushrooms, and stumbled upon this interesting mushroom. I have never seen anything like it, and when I began researching it, I could not find a lot of information on it. I settled on the Yellow-tipped Coral Fungus because it is found locally in the Tongass forest and has similar color, stalk and tips. I am almost positive that the genus of this fungus to be Ramaria from blogs and mushroom guides (Bose-Johnson, 2020 and Forest Service, Alaska Region Botany Program, 2013). According to some sources like Bose-Johnson's web blog, coral mushrooms like this one are edible and are commonly used in Asian dishes, but never specifies if Ramaria formosa is one of these mushrooms. This point is supported in the Forest Services mushroom guide on page 33, where it is said that the edibility of coral mushrooms in general is largely unknown, but that larger species of genus Ramaria are regularly collected and eaten. Another blog post by Michael Kuo in 2009, says that this specific species of mushroom is bitter in taste, but never mentions that it is poisonous. I regret the fact that I did not take more pictures or even uproot the mushroom to take home and try. Nowhere does it say that it would be poisonous, or that you would die if you ate it, but I would advise to be 100% sure that you know what it is before eating it. I am sure that Alaskans use this mushroom in some way, if not only just to harvest and eat ones that are edible, but there was not a lot of information on Alaskans specifically harvesting and eating these types of mushrooms.

Bose-Johnson, Margaret. "What are Coral Mushrooms? (And a Few Coral Mushroom Recipes)." Kitchen Frau. 14 July 2020. https://www.kitchenfrau.com/coral-mushroom-recipes/

Mohatt, Kate; Dillman, Karen; Trudell, Steven. "Mushrooms of the National Forests in Alaska." USFS Alaska Region. Illustrations by Mello, Marsha, Photographs by Trudell, Steven. Feb 2013. https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5414170.pdf

Kuo, Michael. "Ramaria formosa." MushroomExpert.com. May 2009. https://www.mushroomexpert.com/ramaria_formosa.html

Posted on October 1, 2022 12:43 AM by gcadenhead gcadenhead

Observations

Photos / Sounds

What

Coral Fungi (Genus Ramaria)

Observer

gcadenhead

Date

September 30, 2022 01:13 PM AKDT

Description

I found this mushroom on North Douglas recently, and only got one picture of it unfortunately. I posted it here to hopefully get help identifying it as there is not much information on it. I will post a more thorough write-up in my journal.

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