Analysis of the differences between the sheathed woodtuft and funeral bell, as well as exploring other lookalikes to the sheathed woodtuft. This has been done through the use of literature and images with an open license taken from artsdatabanken.no. I have not picked any of these mushrooms myself, all the information accumulated here is for my own use, however I thought my research may be useful to a fellow mushroom picker. More information may be added here at a later date.
Below you will find a figure comprising of similarities and differences of the sheathed woodtruft’s and funeral bell’s characteristics, with supplementary images.
| Sheathed Woodtuft (Kuehneromyces mutabilis) | Funeral Bell (Galerina marginata) |
|---|---|
| A good edible mushroom, delicacy. | Deadly poisonous |
| Cap: Brown in colour and hygrophanous (colour changing depending on humidity). Convex becoming flattened with a broad umbo. Due to their hygrophanous nature, they dry out from the centre, causing the outer edged to be darker. Young specimens have fine light velvety hairs that vanish quickly. 2-6 cm. | Cap: Brown in colour and hygrophanous (colour changing depending on humidity). Often convex, sometimes conical with margins that curve into the gills. Over time the cap flattens. Sometimes develops central umbo. 1-5 cm. |
| Wet Cap: Yellow/brown in the centre becoming darker at the margins. Smooth and glossy. Stripy margin. | Wet Cap : Yellow/brown to cinnamon coloured brown with stripy margins. Tacky and shiny. |
| Dry Cap: Considerably darker in the center. Matt. | Dry Cap: Colour fades from the center outwards to the margins. Pale brown, nude colour. Matt. |
| Gills: Light pale brown/cream, becoming darker at the margins. Not grey, black, or yellow/green. Thin, overcrowding, and adnate. | Gills: Yellow-brown to pale brown. Fairly overcrowded and narrow. Somewhat adnate. |
| Spore print: Brown to dark brown, cinnamon brown. | Spore print: Rust brown to ocher |
| Stem: Pale brown, cylindrical. Smooth above the ring. Below the ring it is pale brown and darker downwards. The scales with small brown scattered scales or fringes below the ring. Ring white and nude, later brown from the spores, which causes it to shrink quickly, may disappear with maturity. 3-10 cm high and 3-8 mm thick. | Stem: Brown to pale brown or grey-brown. Nude/beige ring, eventually turning brown from spores, may disappear with age. Milky coating over the ring. Below the ring, it has a white or greyish-silver-coloured, thin longitudinal and pressed fibres that disappear with maturity. The stem becomes darker brown with age, sometimes even black. 2-7 cm high and 2-5 mm thick |
In more mature specimens the stems can be incredibly similar.
| Flesh: Thin, yellow-brown | Flesh: Thin, yellow-brown |
| Odour: Weak, aromatic, pleasant, slightly floury. Taste: Mild, slightly spicy. | Odour and taste: Floury. |
| Habitat: Saprotrophic, grows on stumps of deciduous and coniferous trees, but preferably birch. | Habitat: May grow individually or many together, but not as dense as sheathed woodtuft mushrooms. On dead wood, stumps, sticks and bark. Prefers spruce. Grows in forests and roadsides. ‘Never found in large, easily visible clusters on deciduous trees (Knudsen, 2001)’ |
| Season: Early summer til late autumn. May grow in small clusters from April, however usually from August. | Season: Summer til late Autumn. Common throughout the country. |
Funeral bells are usually smaller than the sheathed woodtuft, but can achieve the same size in places with the right nutrition, for example on bark fillings on lawns or by the roadside. Sheathed woodtuft mushrooms do not grow on bark or wood chips.
Summary
All in all, it is not the easiest to distinguish between these two species. Accidentally mistaking the funeral bell for a safe edible mushroom comes at the costly price of your life. It goes without saying that you need to be certain you have the sheathed woodtuft and not its deadly counterpart before consumption.
According to mushroomexpert.com, the funeral bell hats react to potassium hydroxide/caustic potash/potash lye (a key ingredient for making liquid soap) and change colour to red, while sheathed woodtuft do not change colour when tested with potassium hydroxide, here you can see a good example of this colour change. In countries like Norway we are fortunate to have soppkontroll, the best translation for this in english would be mushroom control, it may be worthwile investing in some potassium hydroxide. A solution of between 3-10% is required before pipetting onto the cap. Do not digest any mushrooms with potassium hydroxide on.
Other lookalikes:
Several other wood loving saprotrophs have the possibility of resembling sheathed woodtuft mushrooms. They often have scales on their caps or other spore colours.
Sulpher Tufts (Hypholoma) sulphur yellow, often tan towards the centre of the cap.
Kuehnarimyces lignicola is smaller, poorly developed ring and has no scales present on the stem. More similar to the funeral bell.
Alder scalycap (Pholiota alnicola) has a green cap and is not hygrophanous .
Scaly rustgill (Gymnopilus sapineus) often felted when young, can break up into scales and sometimes cracks (looks like tiger bread).
Gymnopilus picreus very similar but grows on pine.
Honey Fungus also grows in groups on dead trees
Enokitake, edible, grows from October to April, on deciduous trees but not birch.
Sheathed Woodtuft as Food
Tough stem, lower part should be discarded.
Perfect for soups and stews.
Can be dried.
Great for mushroom flour.
Sources
Egeland, I. L. (2011) Norske Sopper. Oslo: Gyldendal
Gulden, G. (2018) Soppboka. Oslo: Cappelen Damm
Knudsen, H. (2001) Sopp for nybegynnere. Oslo: Aschehoug
Ryvarden, L. (2010) Norske matsopper. Oslo: Cappelen Damm
Dann, G. (2017) Edible Mushrooms. UIT Cambridge Ltd.
Pictures of Sheathed Woodtuft:
Siv Moen https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/793702 CC-BY-4.0
Bente Rian https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1053988 CC-BY-4.0
Bente Rian https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1053989 CC-BY-4.0
Siv Moen https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1160436 CC-BY-4.0
Ola Vestre https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1237069 CC-BY-4.0
Siv Moen https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1427950 CC-BY-4.0
Bente Rian https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1452942 CC-BY-4.0
Gunnar Olsen https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1478485 CC-BY-4.0
Gunnar Olsen https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1478486 CC-BY-4.0
Bente Rian https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1548858 CC-BY-4.0
Pictures of funeral bells:
Sieglinde Hansen http://artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1083522 CC.BY-4.0
Eva Weme https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/450477 CC-BY-4.0
Siv Moen https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/843526 CC-BY-4.0
Eva Weme https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/855833 CC-BY-4.0
Siv Moen https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1232786 CC-BY-4.0
Siv Moen https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1252665 CC-BY-4.0
Ola Vestre https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1496871 CC-BY-4.0
Ola Vestre https://www.artsobservasjoner.no/Image/1496872 CC-BY-4.0
The picture collections in this post can be used under the conditions (CC-BY-4.0). Further use of information acquired from this article should include us as a source/reference and also the original works supplied here in the sources.