C. THE JELLY FUNGI
Key to the major groups
The jelly fungi or Hymenomycetous heterobasidiae is a complex group of fungi and not only includes our common jelly fungi but many microscopic forms some of which are parasitic. The group is divided into three main divisions depending on the position of the cross-walls within the basidium, or whether the basidium is in the shape of a tuning-fork. They are probably not closely related one to another.
- Auriculariales (Basidia divided into cells by transverse walls)
- 1. Fruit-body lacking a cap and more or less forming a gelatinous coating on plant-debris Helicobasidium
- Fruit-body with more or less distinct cap, gelatinous but tough [2]
- 2. Fruit-body ear-like or cup-shaped; upper surface with grey hairs and lower surface lilaceous brown or wine-coloured Hirneola
- Fruit-body at first cup-shaped but then spreading; upper surface grey and hairy, and lower surface purplish. Auricularia
- Tremellales (Basidia divided into cells by longitudinal walls)
- 1. Fruit-body with distinct stem and spines on lower surface Pseudohydnum
- Fruit-body lacking a well-developed stem, either reduced to a small lobe or entirely absent [2]
- 2. Fruit-body flattened or disc-shaped, often with warts or veins on the surface; spores more or less sausage-shaped Exidia
- Fruit-body brain-like or with irregular bumps, sometimes lobed or irregular and encrusting [3]
- 3. Fruit-body brain-like or with bumps or bosses; spores rounded or ovoid Tremella
- Fruit-body encrusting woody or herbaceous material; spores ellipsoid Sebacina
- Dacrymycetales (Basidia resembling the shape of a tuning-fork)
- 1. Fruit-body club-shaped or coral-like Calocera
- Fruit-body top-shaped or with irregular bumps [2]
- 2. Fruit-body top-shaped Femsjonia
- Fruit-body cushion- or brain-like, or with irregular bumps Dacrymyces
Dacrymyces stillatus Nees ex Fries
Fruit-body: 3-6 mm.
Description:
Fruit-body: cushion or brain-like, often irregular, lacking any evidence of stem, yellow or orange, gelatinous, covered entirely by spore-bearing tissue.
Spore-print: yellowish.
Spores: long, cylindrical or oblong, and slightly curved and 12-15 × 5-6 µm in size; they characteristically have 2 to 4 cross-walls dividing the interior of the spore (see below).
Cystidia: absent.
Habitat & Distribution: Common on all sorts of old wood, particularly on fence-posts, wooden railway-sleepers and other worked timber outside, e.g. sides of summer-houses and garden sheds. It is also found on twigs and branches in woods and copses.
General Information: This fungus is found throughout the year, but it is much more obvious under damp conditions when it is strongly gelatinised and very soft; when dry it almost disappears. The tissue bearing the basidia (perfect state) is yellow, when orange there is a predominance of asexually produced spores called arthrospores (conidia).
D. deliquescens is only another name for the same fungus. There are several species of Dacrymyces with which D. stillatus can be confused, but can only be separated with certainty by using a microscope. The Coral-spot fungus, frequently found in gardens, produces gelatinous, pink protuberances on wood especially that of sycamore, and may easily be mistaken for species of Dacrymyces. It consists entirely of asexually produced spores (conidia) of the Ascomycete Nectria cinnabarina. The perfect state appears late in the year as grouped, small, blood-red flask-shaped fruit-bodies containing envelopes of spores. It is quite unrelated to Dacrymyces.
Calocera viscosa (Fries) Fries described earlier ([p. 170]) is closely related to Dacrymyces. The much smaller, and probably equally as common, Calocera cornea (Fries) Fries is simple, club-shaped and yellow, but darkens to become orange on drying. It grows up to 10 mm high and occurs on all sorts of wood; it is especially common on wet beech trunks. It approaches Dacrymyces more than the much larger C. viscosa.
Illustrations: D. deliquescens—LH 225; NB 1497; WD 10710. C. cornea—WD 1079.
Hirneola auricula-judae (St Amans) Berkeley Jew’s ear
Fruit-body: width 20-75 mm.
Description:
Fruit-body: cup or ear-shaped, red-brown or deep wine-colour, gelatinous with its upper surface, velvety and clothed in greyish or olivaceous hairs.
Spore-bearing layer: reddish or purplish brown, smooth or veined and translucent.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: very long, hyaline under the microscope, oblong, curved and narrowed towards their base, 16-18 × 6-8 µm in size.
Cystidia: absent.
Habitat & Distribution: On dead branches of all kinds and particularly common throughout the year on elder.
General Information: Easily recognised by the wine-coloured, cup-shaped or ear-shaped fruit-body; it is often called Auricularia judae in many books. Its Latin name is reflected in the common name:—auricula ear and judae, of a jew. This fungus is supposed to be a reappearance, as a warning to us all, of Judas, who on betrayal of Christ hung himself from an elder tree.
Auricularia mesenterica (S. F. Gray) Persoon
, ‘Tripe-fungus’, is bracket-shaped with a hairy upper surface and reddish purple or deep purple lower surface which when fresh has a greyish bloom due to the formation of the spores.
There are several fungi in the group Auriculariales in Britain, but many of them are inconspicuous and are identified with difficulty except by the expert. Sebacina incrustans (Fries) Tulasne is a common more obvious example of the resupinate forms. It grows as a cream or ivory-coloured, soft fruit-body encrusting twigs, leaves, grass and soil.
Illustrations: LH 225; NB 1491; WD 1071.
Plate 60. Jelly fungi
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Exidia glandulosa (St Amans) Fries Witch’s butter
Fruit-body: width 15-50 mm.
Description:
Fruit-body: sessile or shortly stalked, blackish, variable in shape, rounded, flattened, disc-shaped or convolute, gelatinous with its under surface tomentose and free from the substrate.
Fruiting surface: uppermost, wavy and folded, and with numerous wart-like projections.
Spore-print: white.
Spores: long, hyaline, cylindrical, sausage-shaped and 12-15 × 5 µm in size.
Cystidia: absent.
Habitat & Distribution: Frequent in crowded groups on stumps, logs and fallen branches of broad-leaved trees, especially those of ash; common throughout the year.
General Information: Tremella foliacea (S. F. Gray) Persoon and Tremella mesenterica Hooker are similar but more convoluted with leaf-like lobes. The former is cinnamon brown and occurs on conifer wood and its spores are 7-9 × 5-7 µm, whilst the latter is bright golden yellow or orange-yellow and occurs on broad-leaved trees. T. mesenterica has spores 7-8 × 5-6 µm, often accompanied or replaced by small, asexually produced spores.
Glandulosa—means full of glands and refers to the glands of the upper surface of the Witch’s butter.
The convoluted fruit-body of the Tremella spp. is reflected in the word foliacea—leafy, and mesenterica—middle intestine. The last species is also often called the ‘Yellow brain-fungus’.
Illustrations: Exidia glandulosa—LH 225; NB 1494; WD 1073. Tremella mesenterica—LH 225; NB 1495; WD 1076.
Plate 61. Jelly fungi
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