Specimen #2 Jelly Fungus

Fig.1 Mass of E. glandulosa growing on
a log

Name: Exidia glandulosa Black Witch's Butter or Black Jelly Roll
Family: Auriculariaceae
Collection Date: October 4,2011
Habitat: growing on a dead tree
Location: The West Woods in Russell, Ohio
Description: "The fruiting body is flabby or gelatinous, beginning as a pallid or translucent blister but soon becoming cushion-shaped to irregularly lobed; reddish-black to olive-black soon if not already so becoming jet-black; 1-2 cm broad but often fusing with others to form rows or masses up to 50 cm long; upper surface if smooth to minutely roughened or warty. Flesh gelatinous, black; no stalk" (Arora p. 672, 1986).
Collector: Brooke Warren
Key Used: Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms Demystified. New York: Ten Speed Press.
Keying Steps:
Key to the Major Groups of Fleshy Fungi
1A. Spores produced on mother cells called basidia; fruiting body variously shaped (see pp. 52-54)... Basidiomycotina, p. 57

Key to the Basidiomycetes
1A. Basidia and spores borne externally ( on the exposed surfaces of gills, tubes, spines, branches, lobes, etc.); spores forcibly discharged at maturity, i.e., a spore print often (but not always) obtainable; fruiting body with a cap and a stalk, or clublike, or branched, or bracketlike, or crustlike (without a stalk or sometimes without a cap) or lobed or bloblike, etc. ... 2
2B. Not as above... Hymenomycetes, below

Key to the Hymenomycetes
1B. Not as above; pores and tubes absent... 3
3B. Gills absent (but spines, warts, folds, or wrinkles may be present)... 4
4A. Fruiting body gelatinous (jellylike) or very rubbery; usually (but not always) growing on wood; basidia partitioned or forked (under the microscope)... Tremellales & Allies, p. 669

Key to the Tremellales & Allies
1B. Not as above; fruiting body white, grayish, black, reddish-purple, brown, yellow-brown, etc. ...9
9B. Not as above; underside of cap lacking minute spines or "teeth"... 10
10B. Not as above; usually found on wood or plants... 12
12A. Fruiting body black (or nearly black) when fresh... 13
13A. Fruiting body small and cushion-shaped, warty, or lobed, but often fusing to form large continuous patches or sheets; growing on dead hardwoods... Exidia glandulosa p. 672

Fig. 2 Dried up specimen being measured (Kuo,2007).

Links:
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/exidia_glandulosa.html
http://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wood/jelly%20fungi/species%20pages/Exidia%20glandulosa.htm
http://healing-mushrooms.net/archives/exidia-glandulosa.html

Citations
Kuo, M. (2007, April). Exidia glandulosa. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/exidia_glandulosa.html