Jelly fungi are a paraphyletic group of several heterobasidiomycete fungal orders from different classes of the subphylum Agaricomycotina: Tremellales, Dacrymycetales, Auriculariales and Sebacinales. These fungi are so named because their foliose, irregularly branched fruiting body is, or appears to be, the consistency of jelly. Actually, many are somewhat rubbery and gelatinous. When dried, jelly fungi become hard and shriveled; when exposed to water, they return to their original form.
Tremella fuciformis is a species of fungus; it produces white, frond-like, gelatinous basidiocarps. It is widespread, especially in the tropics, where it can be found on the dead branches of broadleaf trees. This fungus is commercially cultivated and is one of the most popular fungi in the cuisine and medicine of China. T. fuciformis is commonly known as snow fungus, snow ear, silver ear fungus, white jelly mushroom, and white cloud ears.
Tremella mesenterica is a common jelly fungus in the family Tremellaceae of the Agaricomycotina. The gelatinous, orange-yellow fruit body of the fungus, which can grow up to 7.5 cm (3 in) diameter, has a convoluted or lobed surface that is greasy or slimy when damp.
Hypoxylon is a genus of ascomycetes commonly found on dead wood, and usually one of the earliest species to colonise dead wood. A common European species is Hypoxylon fragiforme which is particular common on dead trunks of beech.
Gastón Guzmán Huerta, a Mexican mycologist and anthropologist, was an authority on the genus Psilocybe.
Laricifomes officinalis, also known as agarikon, eburiko, or the quinine conk, is a wood-decay fungus that causes brown heart rot on conifers native to Europe, Asia, and North America, as well as Morocco. This fungus is the only member of the genus Laricifomes, in the order Polyporales. The fruiting bodies grow in large conks on the trunks of trees.
Agaricomycotina is one of three subdivisions of the Basidiomycota, and represents all of the fungi which form macroscopic fruiting bodies. Agaricomycotina contains over 30,000 species, divided into three classes: Tremellomycetes, Dacrymycetes, and Agaricomycetes. Around 98% of the species are in the class Agaricomycetes, including all the agarics, bracket fungi, clavarioid fungi, corticioid fungi, and gasteroid fungi. Tremellomycetes contains many basidiomycete yeasts and some conspicuous jelly fungi. Dacrymycetes contains a further group of jelly fungi. These taxa are founded on molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, and supersede earlier morphology-based classifications. Agaricomycotina contains nearly one third of all described species of fungi.
Orson Knapp Miller Jr. was an American mycologist. He published numerous papers in mycology and was responsible for the naming of many taxa, as well as being one of the authors erecting the genus Chroogomphus. He described Omphalotus olivascens, several species of Amanita, and the ghoul fungus Hebeloma aminophilum.
Clathrus ruber is a species of fungus in the family Phallaceae, and the type species of the genus Clathrus. It is commonly known as the latticed stinkhorn, the basket stinkhorn, or the red cage, alluding to the striking fruit bodies that are shaped somewhat like a round or oval hollow sphere with interlaced or latticed branches. The species was illustrated in the scientific literature during the 16th century, but was not officially described until 1729.
Xylaria hypoxylon is a species of bioluminescent fungus in the family Xylariaceae. It is known by a variety of common names, such as the candlestick fungus, the candlesnuff fungus, carbon antlers, or the stag's horn fungus. The fruit bodies, characterized by erect, elongated black branches with whitened tips, typically grow in clusters on decaying hardwood. The fungus can cause a root rot in hawthorn and gooseberry plants.
Tremella is a genus of fungi in the family Tremellaceae. All Tremella species are parasites of other fungi and most produce anamorphic yeast states. Basidiocarps, when produced, are gelatinous and are colloquially classed among the "jelly fungi". Over 100 species of Tremella are currently recognized worldwide. One species, Tremella fuciformis, is commercially cultivated for food.
Annulohypoxylon, sometimes called cramp balls, is a genus of fungi in the family Xylariaceae. The 27 species in the genus have a collectively widespread distribution.
Hericium is a genus of edible mushrooms in the family Hericiaceae. Species in this genus are white and fleshy and grow on dead or dying wood; fruiting bodies resemble a mass of fragile icicle-like spines that are suspended from either a branched supporting framework or from a tough, unbranched cushion of tissue. This distinctive structure has earned Hericium species a variety of common names—monkey's head, lion's mane, and bear's head are examples. Taxonomically, this genus was previously placed within the order Aphyllophorales, but recent molecular studies now place it in the Russulales.
Exidia nigricans is a jelly fungus in the family Auriculariaceae. It is a common, wood-rotting species throughout the Northern Hemisphere, typically growing on dead attached branches of broadleaf trees. It has been much confused with Exidia glandulosa.
Guepinia is a genus of fungus in the Auriculariales order. It is a monotypic genus, containing the single species Guepinia helvelloides, commonly known as the apricot jelly. The fungus produces salmon-pink, ear-shaped, gelatinous fruit bodies that grow solitarily or in small tufted groups on soil, usually associated with buried rotting wood. The fruit bodies are up to 10 cm (4 in) tall and up to 17 cm wide; the stalks are not well-differentiated from the cap. It has a white spore deposit, and the oblong to ellipsoid spores measure 9–11 by 5–6 micrometers.
Stagnicola is an agaric fungal genus that contains the single species Stagnicola perplexa. This fungus colonizes plant debris in wet coniferous forest floor depressions and shallow pools, and fruits after the pools drain or dry in late summer to early fall in North America and Europe. The genus is characterized by smooth, yellowish brown basidiospores lacking a germ pore, and a naucorioid appearance, with brownish mycelium at the base of the stems. Phylogenetically, Stagnicola appeared rather isolated and proved to be closest to Mythicomyces and Mythicomyces was closest to the Psathyrellaceae. In 2019 the two genera were shown to be closely related and placed in a new family, Mythicomycetaceae sister to the Psathyrellaceae.
Auricularia auricula-judae, commonly known as wood ear, jelly ear, or more historically, Jew's ear, is a species of fungus in the order Auriculariales. Basidiocarps are brown, gelatinous, and have a noticeably ear-like shape. They grow on wood, especially elder. The specific epithet is derived from the belief that Judas Iscariot hanged himself from an elder tree.
Annulohypoxylon thouarsianum is a species of ascomycete fungus.
Naematelia aurantia is a species of fungus producing yellow, frondose, gelatinous basidiocarps. It is widespread in north temperate regions and is parasitic on another species of fungus that grows on dead attached and recently fallen branches of broadleaf trees. It is commonly called golden ear in North America.
Annulohypoxylon annulatum is a pyrenomycete, a carbonaceous fungus that produces its ascospores in perithecia, and then shoots them out through an opening called the ostiole. Annulohypoxylon was derived from the original genus Hypoxylon in 2005 and is distinguished by their flat, disk-like rings encircling the ostioles. The stromata of A. annulatum are semi-globose to cushion-like and are black in color. They are covered in ostioles surrounded by a flat disc area. A hand lens may be needed in order to see this. This species commonly grows on oak and when crushed and mixed with potassium hydroxide will produce an olive green pigment. Microscopically, "ascospores brown to dark brown, ellipsoid-inequilateral, 7.5-12 × 3.5-5 μm, with straight germ slit spore-length".
