Tremella mesenterica

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Ecology: Parasitic on the mycelium of species of Peniophora (a genus of crust fungi); growing alone or in amorphous clusters on the decaying sticks and logs of oaks and other hardwoods (usually when bark is still adnate); usually appearing in spring, in temperate areas, but also appearing in summer, fall, and winter; widely distributed in North America, but possibly less common in western North America. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois and Indiana.

Fruiting Body: A mass of lobes or brainlike sections 2-5 cm across and 1-3 cm high; surface bald, moist, dull to bright yellow or orangish yellow; flesh gelatinous, yellow; fading and sometimes becoming amorphous and poorly defined with old age or in wet conditions; drying to an orangish yellow crust.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Microscopic Features: Spores 10-15 x 6-12 m; ellipsoid; smooth; hyaline in KOH; often "budding" to germinate by repetition, and then sometimes enlarging and/or becoming irregularly shaped. Basidia 21-22 x 12-18 m; ellipsoid; mostly 4-sterigmate, with long, fingerlike sterigmata (to about 40 m long); longitudinally septate. Conidia often present; variously sized but usually smaller than spores; ellipsoid to subfusiform; smooth; hyaline in KOH.

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