Tremella Mesenterica On Hardwood

Day 61: Natural history lesson for the day: it is often helpful to identify the substrate on which a lichen or fungus is growing. Some species prefer hardwoods to soft, as is the case with Tremella mesenterica, commonly known as Witches' Butter. It has a close look-alike in Dacrymyces palmatus which, conveniently, exhibits a preference for softwood such as Doug-fir. When the wood on which the fungus grows is too badly decayed to sort out, we must resort to microscopic examination of the spore-producing basidia. Both Tremella and Dacrymyces are common in the Pacific Northwest. While identification of the substrate isn't a foolproof way of separating them because Dacrymyces also occasionally occurs on hardwood, if you observe an orangy-yellow jelly fungus similar to the one shown in this image and it is growing on rotting alder, it is undoubtedly Tremella mesenterica.

Buttered Lichens

Day 13: Another wonderful present from far away arrived in my mail yesterday. A Parkie friend was visiting Michigan and had asked if I'd like some specimens of local lichen. I said yes, and asked her to look for species she had not observed in the Pacific Northwest. She replied, "I'm trying to get you some orange ones." Visions of Xanthorias and Candellarias danced in my head like so many sugarplums (Teloschistes being beyond my wildest dreams), and then she sent a photo. I burst out laughing. "Anne," I wrote back, "don't try to mail those. They'll go to goo in the post. Those are jelli fungi." "Too late," she replied. "I already mailed them."

Fortunately, she sent the parcel via priority mail. The fungi (Tremella mesenterica, commonly called "Witches' Butter") had only just begun to biodegrade, and were restored to health after spending the night outdoors. I spent yesterday evening examining samples of the lichen under the dissecting 'scope and determined from the sparsity of rhizines, absence of apothecia and granular soredia arising "from pustules" (per Brodo) that the specimen was one of Michigan's commoner species, Flavoparmelia caperata. Also known generically as "Greenshield," Flavoparmelia will grow on almost any bark substrate and may even attach to rock. Anne's specimens were taken from pine and maple. They are unlikely to survive in the Pacific Northwest, but I've given them the option to colonize on Acer.