Whole fungus homogeneous, gelatinous, shrivelling when dry, reviving when moistened, pervaded internally with branched filaments, terminating toward the surface all round in sporophores. Spores transparent, from globose to sausage-shape and curved, sometimes septate. Fries.
The Tremellaceæ, as their name signifies, tremble, because jelly-like when moist. They are hard, tough, horny when dry, but swell and become gelatinous when wet. In the typical genus, Tremella, there is often but little consistency. Whoever has climbed an old rail fence on a rainy day has had the doubtful pleasure of acquaintance with some of them. Sections for the microscope are obtainable by hardening them in alcohol.
There are several edible species in the family. They are good in soups, giving them flavor and body, and some are excellent when stewed.
Broadly attached, margin free and reflexed. (No edible species reported.)
Cartilaginous, ear-shaped, attached by a point.
Cup-shaped, truncate, or irregularly lobed; spores reniform, producing curved sporidiola on germination. (No edible species reported.)
Pulvinate and gyrose; spores reniform, producing rod-shaped sporidiola on germination. (No edible species reported.)
Brain-like or lobed; spores globose or ovoid.
Firm, convex, with a central hard nucleus. (No edible species reported.)
Erect, spathulate. (No edible species reported.)
Gelatinous, tremelloid, fan-shaped, fleshy; hymenium with distinct spines.
Small, pulvinate and gyrose. (No edible species reported.)
Irregularly cup-shaped, hymenium on one surface only. (No edible species reported.)
Hymenium at the apex of a short stem, bearing conidia and spores. (No edible species reported.)
Stem distinct, bearing the hymenium at its expanded apex. (No edible species reported.)
Subglobose or lobed, hollow. (No edible species reported.)
Subcylindrical and erect, simple or branched (No edible species reported.)
Gelatinous, rather cartilaginous, soft and tremulous when moist, but not distended with jelly, horny when dry, becoming somewhat cartilaginous when moistened. The hard skin forming the hymenium, which covers the cup-shaped cavity and is of a different color, can be separated entire after a thorough soaking in water. Sporophores (spore-bearing processes) not involved in jelly. Spores oblong, curved. Fries.
A very peculiar and distinct genus separated from the neighboring genera by its disk-like, somewhat cup-shaped cavity and by its not being distended with jelly.
H. auri´cula—Jude´a (Linn.) Berk.—Jew’s ear. 1–4 in. across, thin, and flexible when moist, hard when dry, date-brown or blackish. Hymenium venoso-plicate (vein-plaited), forming irregular depressions such as are in the ear, yellowish-gray or grayish beneath and hairy. The large depressions or corrugations branch from smaller ones near the center of the plant.
Spores 20–25×7–9µ Massee.
H. auricula-Judea is not very particular in the trees it patronizes. Elm, maple, hickory, balsam-fir, spruce, alder bear it. When the plant grows on upright timber it usually turns upward. It is not generally reported in the United States.
Ohio, Maryland, Miss Banning; Indiana, H.I. Miller; New York, Peck; New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, McIlvaine. Extensively used in China, where eating it probably antedates all European records by several thousand years. It is brought there dried from Tahiti in great quantities and made into soup.
The writer has found and eaten several specimens of it. It is not as tender as other gelatinous species, but it is an oddity that pleases.
Distended with jelly when moist, tremulous, without a defined margin and without nipple-like elevations. Spore-bearing processes globose, becoming divided into four parts, each division producing an elongated free point terminating in a simple spore. Fries.
Distinguished by its peculiarly convoluted habit and jelly-like substance, which is more or less inclined to be cartilaginous.
Exidia, similar in form, is separated by possessing minute nipple-like elevations and Hirneola by its distinct difference in form.
Generally growing on dead wood; some species are found on trees and others on the ground, etc.
Old tradition, in many countries, attests that the Tremellas are Fairy bread, and T. albida the choicest baking. Pretty, indeed, must have been the feasts when piles of such purity filled the board, and the brilliant Pezizae were wassail cups.
They are better suited to Fairy appetites than to those of mortals; being watery their nutritive value is small. Nevertheless they have dainty flavor.
So far as tested no suspicion rests upon Tremellæ.
Gelatinous inclining to cartilaginous, foliaceous, naked.
Firm, then pulpy, somewhat pruinose with the spores.
Diffused, becoming plane.
Small, somewhat erumpent.
T. fimbria´ta Pers.—fimbriæ, fringe. Olivaceous inclining to black, cespitose, clusters 2–3 in. high and even broader, erect, corrugated; lobes flaccid, incised at the margin, undulately fringed.
When soaked with water it has a dark tawny tinge. Stevenson.
Spores subpyriform.
On roots, dead branches, stumps, rails, etc.
From July to December, 1898, tufts five inches in diameter grew from an oak stump close by the writer’s cottage at Mt. Gretna, Pa. These tufts dried, and revived after rain into a gelatinous condition. They were nibbled at raw, and several were cooked. Tufts were found elsewhere in the same woods and eaten by others. They were unanimously approved. The species dries hard, like thin glue, but is darker. A dried piece swells in the mouth, grows tough, and has but little taste. Flavor develops in cooking.
T. lutes´cens Pers.—luteus, yellow. Yellowish, cespitose, small, cluster ½-1 in. broad, very soft, circling in wavy, undulating folds; lobes entire, naked.
Inclining to be fluid. Whitish when young. Stevenson.
Spores subglobose, 12–16µ diameter Massee.
North Carolina, common. Curtis. On decaying branches, stumps, etc. July to February.
It dries and revives, or swells with moisture, very soft and tremulous.
Edible. Leuba.
T. mesenter´ica Retz. Gr—the mesentary. Gelatinous but firm, bright orange-yellow, variously contorted; lobes short, smooth, pruinose with the white spores at maturity. Spores broadly elliptical, 6–9µ diameter; conidia 1–1.5µ diameter.
On dead branches. Very variable in form but known by the bright orange color. From ½-2 in. across. Massee.
North Carolina. Common, edible. Curtis; California, Ohio, West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. McIlvaine. Dr. J.R. Weist, Richmond, Ind., November, 1898, sent me fine specimens.
Very common as an apparent exudation from sticks, branches and rails. It can usually be collected in quantity from June until far into the winter. It can be found in every month in the year.
During the civil war the writer’s first attempt at making a dish of cornstarch resulted in getting it into knots. T. mesenterica, when stewed, very much resembles these same knots. It has a mild, woody flavor, slightly sweet, and is good.
T. myceto´phila Pk. (Plate CXLIVa.) Suborbicular, depressed, circling in folds, tremelloid-fleshy, slightly pruinose, yellowish or pallid, 4–8 lines broad. Peck, 28th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Haddonfield, N.J., August, 1895. McIlvaine.
Professor Peck notes it as found parasitic upon Collybia dryophila.
I found T. mycetophila growing parasitic upon Marasmius oreades, August, 1894. The mass was 2 in. in diameter. Separating them was taking the host from the parasite. Cooked it is glutinous, tender—like calf’s head. Rather tasteless.
T. al´bida Huds.—albidus, whitish. Whitish, becoming dingy-brown when dry, 1 in. broad, ascending, tough, expanded, undulated, somewhat circling in folds, powdered. Stevenson.
Spores oblong, obtuse, curved, 2-guttate, subhyaline, 12–14×4–5µ K.
Where birch, sugar-maple, hickory are in abundance the T. albida will be found. At Eagle’s Mere and Springton, Pa., and other wooded places, it is common during the warm months. It has slight taste, sweet, woody, but makes a pleasant dish.
T. intumes´cens Eng. Bot.—intumesco, to swell up. Gelatinous; subcespitose, rounded, broken up into numerous tortuous lobes, brown, shining, obscurely dotted, becoming darker when dry. Spores oblong, slightly curved, 12–14×3–4µ.
From 1–2 in. across. Massee.
Entire year, but dried or frozen during winter, swelling in wet weather.
North Carolina. Common. Curtis. West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, McIlvaine.
T. intumescens is not rare in West Virginia, or where beech logs are in plenty, though it does not confine itself to beech. It occurs on maples and some other woods.
It resembles the T. mesenterica in taste, but is sweeter. It is not as large, but is equally good.
Gelatinous, pileate, prickly below, spines awl-shaped, equal. Fries.
The members of this genus resemble in form the section Mesopus of Hydnum and have the same awl-shaped spines, but differ in their gelatinous consistency and fructification.
T. gelatino´sum Pers.—gelatina, jelly. Pileus covered with a greenish-brown bloom, gelatinous, tremulous, dimidiate, somewhat stipitate, covered with small pimples. Spines soft, glaucous.
On fir, trunks and sawdust. September to October. Stevenson.
Of singular beauty, almost translucent with steel-blue tints shading into violet, while the spines are of a pure soft white.
Spores round, somewhat irregular, white, 2µ W.G.S.
Can not be confounded with any. The only gelatinous spiny fungus.
North Carolina, Schweinitz, Curtis; Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Farlow, Frost; New York, Peck, Rep. 22. T. gelatinosum is well distributed over the United States but is not reported in quantity. It is an autumnal grower, lasting well into the winter. The writer found specimens near Haddonfield, N.J., in February, 1894, and sent them to Professor Peck. It is delicious when slowly stewed.