Day 53: Well, those blasted taxonomists have apparently had another beer party, meaning that now I'm going to have to remind myself that this Dacrymyces species is no longer "palmatus," but Dacrymyces chrysospermus. I have no idea when or why the name was changed, but I'm sure there was a good reason. Seriously. I mean, there had to be a good reason, right? They don't just go around arbitrarily renaming things to keep us confused. That said, there are days when I really wish genetic sequencing hadn't been discovered for at least one more generation, but there ya go: it's our problem, and we have to deal with it. Aside from that, Dacrymyces pa... dammit ...chrysospermus can be distinguished from remarkably similar but unrelated Tremella mesenterica ("Witches' butter") by examining the substrate on which it is growing. Tremella grows on hardwoods, Dacrymyces on conifer wood. Both are relatively common in the Pacific Northwe't.
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