Dacrymyces palmatus (Schwein.) Bres.
Höhn. Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr. 54: 425. 1904.

Common Name: Witch's Butter

• Sporocarp

  Fruiting body sessile to substipitate, at first subglobose, to cushion-shaped, soon deeply wrinkled to cerebriform; substipitate forms initially short-cylindrical to turbinate, becoming lobed to deeply convoluted, sometimes laterally compressed from adjacent fruiting bodies and appearing fan-shaped; at maturity up to 5 cm broad, 2 cm tall, abruptly narrowed and pallid at the attachment point; surface viscid, glabrous, roughened with a hand-lens, yellow-orange, drying reddish-orange to reddish-brown, forming a tough, membranous film on the substrate; context gelatinous, colored like the cap, tending to liquify with age; odor and taste not distinctive.

• Spores

  Spores 18.0-23.0 x 6.5-8.0 µm, oblong to slightly curved, smooth, thin-walled, contents granular, up to seven septa at maturity; spores pale-yellow in deposit.

• Habitat

  Scattered to clustered on decorticated conifer wood, or emerging from bark cracks; fruiting throughout the winter months after rainy periods; common.

• Edibility

  Edible.

• Comments

  Dacrymyces palmatus is a yellow-orange jelly fungus which closely mimics Tremella mesenterica, the common Witch's Butter. The two taxa are best told apart in the field by differences in habit and substrate. Tremella mesenterica is a parasite of Stereum species and typically fruits with its host on hardwoods usually with intact bark. In contrast, Dacrymyces palmatus occurs on decorticated conifer wood and is not associated with Stereum species. Despite their similar appearance, the two taxa are actually distantly related as evidenced by their very different microscopic characters. Tremella mesenterica has basidia which are longitudinally septate and ovate spores, while Dacrymyces palmatus has tuning-fork shaped basidia and multi-septate, curved-oblong spores.

• References

  Kennedy, L.L. (1956). Dacymyces palmatus. Mycologia 48: 311-319.
  Kennedy, L.L. (1958). The Genus Dacrymyces. Mycologia 50(6): 896-915.
  Lowy, B. (1971). Flora Neotropica, Monograph No. 6, Tremellales. Hafner Publishing Company: New York, NY. 154 p.
  Martin, G. W. (1964). Revision of the North Central Tremellales. J. Cramer: Lehre. 122 p.
  McNabb, R.F.R. (1973). Taxonomic Studies in the Dacrymycetaceae VIII. Dacrymyces Nees ex Fries. New Zeal. Journ. Bot. 11: 461-524.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Fred Stevens: Dacrymyces palmatus (CP)
  • Fred Stevens: Dacrymyces palmatus (CP)
  • Fred Stevens: Dacrymyces palmatus (CP) -- photomicrograph showing tuning-fork basidium
  • Fred Stevens: Dacrymyces palmatus (CP) -- photomicrograph showing tuning-fork basidium
  • Michael Wood: Dacrymyces palmatus (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Dacrymyces palmatus (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Dacrymyces palmatus (CP)
  • Michael Wood: Dacrymyces palmatus (CP)
  • Boleslaw Kuznik -- Hunting for Mushrooms: Dacrymyces palmatus (CP)
  • Eleanor Yarrow: Dacrymyces palmatus (CP)
  • George Barron: Dacrymyces palmatus (CP)
  • Lincoff: p. 381 (D), pl. 567 (CP)
  • Mushroom Observer: Dacrymyces palmatus (CP)
  • McKenny et al.: p. 184 (D & CP)
  • Miller: sp 378 (D & CP)
  • Phillips: p. 300 (D & CP)
  
  

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)