National Museum of Natural Science

The fruiting body of the crown coral is shaped like a crown of branches and light yellow. Its former scientific name of Clavicorona pyxidata or Clavaria pyxidate is more widely known. If you come across something coral-shaped growing on rotting wood in a forest, it is a fungus. As this species resembles coral, it was initially placed in the family Clavariaceae (clavoid fungi), which included the genera Artomyces, Ramaria, and Clavulinopsis. Later, molecular systems biological research showed that these genera are different and independent groups of fungi.