Honey fungus vs Sulphur tuft: how to tell them apart

Both grow in clusters on wood. Sulphur tuft is bright sulphur-yellow with greenish gills and a purplish-brown spore print and is poisonous. Honey fungus is honey-brown with a clear ring, a white spore print and black bootlace-like threads under the bark.

Side-by-side comparison

	Honey fungus Armillaria mellea	Sulphur tuft Hypholoma fasciculare
Safety status	Edible with caution	Poisonous
Cap	Honey-yellow to brown, 4–15 cm, with fine dark scales at the centre	Sulphur-yellow with an orange-brown centre, 2–7 cm
Underside	White to cream gills, slightly running down the stem	Yellow, then olive-green and finally purplish-brown gills
Stem	Fibrous, with a yellowish ring; black bootlace-like threads (rhizomorphs) grow under bark	Yellow, fibrous, with a fibrous ring zone
Smell	Mild, sweetish	Unpleasant, bitter
Spore print	White	Purple-brown
Habitat	Clusters at the base of living and dead trees and stumps	Dense clusters on dead broadleaf and conifer stumps and logs
Season	Sep – Nov	Mar – Dec

Photos: Stu's Images, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Alan Rockefeller, CC BY-SA 4.0

Quick tests that separate them

1. Spore print: white (honey fungus) vs purplish-brown (sulphur tuft).
2. Gills: cream (honey fungus) vs yellow becoming greenish (sulphur tuft).
3. Under the bark: black bootlace strands (honey fungus).
4. Taste: sulphur tuft is bitter, but never taste-test a wild mushroom.

Key clues for each

Honey fungus: White spore print, a cottony yellowish ring and black bootlace threads under the bark. The funeral bell (deadly) has a rust-brown print.

Sulphur tuft: Sulphur-yellow tufts on wood with greenish gills, and a purplish-brown spore print.

Frequently asked questions