Key to Fungi Occurring as Irregularly Shaped
Gelatinous Masses: the Jelly Fungi

 

1. Fruit body blackish or whitish

    2. Fruit body blackish .........................................................................................................Exidia glandulosa

    2. Fruit body whitish

        3. Hard, seed-like, whitish granules within the flesh of the fruit body ............................... Myxarium nucleatum

        3. Hard, seed-like, whitish granules not present ...........................................................Ductifera pululahuana

1. Fruit body yellowish to yellow-orange or purplish or brownish

    4. Fruit body yellowish to yellow-orange

        5. Fruit body whitish near point of attachment; grows on conifer logs.......................Dacrymyces chrysospermus

        5. Fruit body without whitish point of attachment; on hardwood logs .............................Tremella mesenterica

    4. Fruit body purplish or brownish; on hardwoods

        6. Fruit body purplish; individual fruit bodies cup-like or disc-like up to 1 cm wide but soon
            coalesce to form an irregular gelatinous mass .........................................................Ascocoryne sarcoides

        6. Fruit body brownish (yellowish to reddish to grayish brown)

            7. Fruit body irregularly cup-shaped or ear-shaped with portions irregularly wrinkled or with raised
                vein-like markings, finely tomentose..................................................................Auricularia angiospermarum

            7. Fruit body not as above, occurring as irregularly-shaped, contorted clusters;
                not tomentose ........................................................................................................Exidia crenata

 

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