GELATINOUS & RUBBERY FUNGI

The term ‘gelatinous’ or ‘jelly’ fungi include fungi that feel like ‘Jello’, but they are not necessarily closely related to each other. In other words, this is a convenient but artificial term for a category of fungi that have this characteristic in common.

With some exceptions, most gelatinous or ‘jelly’ fungi are basidiomycetes in the Auriculales, Dacrymycetales or the Tremellales orders. Those in the Tremellales are parasitic on the mycelium of other fungi within their mutually inhabited wood substrates. Species in the Auriculales and Dacrymycetales are exclusively saprotrophic on decaying wood. Calostoma cinnabarina is somewhat gelatinous and included here for that reason, however it is considered a ‘gasteromycete’ (another artificial category of fungi that have spores enclosed within a peridium), like the puffballs and earth stars. These fungi depend on rain drops, insects or animals to help them disperse their spores. Unlike the other gelatinous fungi included in this category, it is a mycorrhizal fungus related to the boletes.