Dacrymyces stillatus - Common Jellyspot

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Dacrymycetes

Order: Dacrymycetales

Gregarious or in large merging groups on dead broadleaf or conifer wood, including fence posts and rails, this common fungus has a preference for timber that is already fairly well rotted.

The fruitbodies can appear at any time of the year during periods of wet weather; this is also a characteristic of many other members of the order Dacrymycetales.

Identification Guide

	Fruitbody Dull orange-yellow when moist and fresh, becoming more brown and translucent with age; cushion-shaped blobs, slightly flattened; 1 to 8mm across and up to 4mm tall.
Spores	White.
Odour/taste	Not distinctive.
Habitat	On rotting trunks and stumps of dead broadleaf trees and conifers.
Season	Fruiting through most of the year.
Occurrence	Widespread and very common.
Similar species	Dacrymyces chrysospermus, another orange jelly-like species, has a rudimentary cup-on-a-stem fruitbody rather than a cushion-like form. Tremella mesenterica produces fruitbodies of similar colour but they are larger and generally convoluted and lobed.