Exidia nucleata (Schweinitz) Burt
Annual Report of the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis 8: 371. 1921.

Common Name: none

Synonym: Temella nucleata

• Sporocarp

  Fruiting body sessile, at first subglobose, becoming convoluted to cerebriform, often fusing into sheet-like masses up to 20 cm long, 5 cm wide, and 0.8 cm tall; surface glabrous, translucent-white, aging pinkish-tan to vinaceous-brown, occasionally olive-brown; context gelatinous, colored like the cap, tending to liquify in old specimens, with one or more embedded, but not anchored, cream-colored nodules; odor not distinctive; taste mildly fungal.

• Spores

  Spores 9.0-12.0 x 4.0-5.5 µm, sausage-shaped, smooth, thin-walled, contents granular; basidia cruciate-type producing four epibasidia; spores white in deposit.

• Habitat

  Scattered to fused into large groupings, e.g. broad rows or sheets, found usually on shaded, lower surfaces of decaying hardwood logs; fruiting throughout the winter months after rainy periods; occasional.

• Edibility

  Unknown, but like most jelly fungi probably edible.

• Comments

  Exidia nucleata is a translucent-white jelly fungus whose principal fieldmark is the presence of whitish nodules in the context. It is sometimes confused with Tremella encephala, also whitish when young, but the latter is pale yellowish-tan, not vinaceous-brown in age. More significantly, while Tremella encephala has a whitish core which mimics the nodules of Exidia nucleata, it is anchored at the base, not free within the gelatinous context. Other differences include a conifer habit and spores that are ovate not sausage-shaped. Compare also with Exidia thuretiana, another hardwood inhabiting white jelly fungus. It can be distinguished by the lack of nodular inclusions and significantly larger spores.

• References

  Lowy, B. (1971). Flora Neotropica, Monograph No. 6, Tremellales. Hafner Publishing Company: New York, NY. 154 p.
  Martin, G.W. (1944). The Tremellales of the North Central United States and Adjacent Canada. University of Iowa: Iowa City, IA. 88 p.
  Martin, G.W. (1964). Revision of the North Central Tremellales. J. Cramer: Lehre. 122 p.

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Fred Stevens: Exidia nucleata (CP)
  • Fred Stevens: Exidia nucleata (CP)
  • Fred Stevens: Exidia nucleata (CP)
  
  

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