Sheathed woodtuft vs Funeral bell: how to tell them apart

Both grow on rotting wood and have rusty-brown spore prints, and the funeral bell contains deadly amatoxins. The sheathed woodtuft has scales on the stem below the ring and a two-tone cap, while the funeral bell has a smooth stem. Because the difference is subtle, small brown mushrooms on wood are best avoided entirely.

Side-by-side comparison

	Sheathed woodtuft Kuehneromyces mutabilis	Funeral bell Galerina marginata
Safety status	Edible with caution	Deadly
Cap	Two-toned: dark cinnamon when wet, drying pale honey from the centre outwards, 2–6 cm	Honey to tawny-brown, 1.5–5 cm, sticky when wet, margin lined when moist
Underside	Cream, then rusty-brown gills	Pale, then rust-brown gills
Stem	Ring, with fine scales below the ring, smooth above	Brown, fibrous, with a thin ring that often disappears
Smell	Pleasant, mushroomy	Mealy, like flour
Spore print	Rusty brown	Rusty brown
Habitat	Dense clusters on stumps and logs of broadleaf trees	Rotting stumps and logs, conifer and broadleaf
Season	Apr – Nov	Apr – Nov

Photos: Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Alan Rockefeller, CC BY-SA 4.0

Quick tests that separate them

1. Stem below the ring: scaly (woodtuft) vs smooth (funeral bell).
2. Smell: pleasant (woodtuft) vs mealy like flour (funeral bell).
3. Both leave rusty-brown spore prints.
4. If in doubt, do not eat any small brown mushroom growing on wood.

Key clues for each

Sheathed woodtuft: A scaly stem below the ring is the clue. Because the funeral bell is deadly, a rusty-brown spore print mushroom on wood is a hard no for most beginners.

Funeral bell: A small, brown, wood-growing mushroom with a rusty-brown spore print. Rule of thumb: avoid all small brown mushrooms.

Frequently asked questions

More look-alike comparisons

• Velvet shank vs funeral bell: winter mushrooms on wood
• Wild enoki vs funeral bell: spore print settles it