Ductifera pululahuana

Widespread but uncommon

July through October

Decaying wood

This is a widespread but uncommon jelly fungus.

It obtains its nutrients from decaying organic matter (saprobic). It is usually found in dense clusters on decaying wood of hardwood trees from which the bark has been removed.

Individual fruiting bodies stemless, gelatinous, and more or less fan-shaped when uncrowded. When clustered, the fruiting bodies fuse together and resemble exposed brain. In moist conditions fruiting clusters are white to yellowish, ⅜″ to 4″ wide, and up to ¾″ in height. As they age they sometimes become yellowish, brownish, or pinkish to purplish. In dry weather they shrink, becoming hard and almost transparent, and are easily overlooked.

Taxonomy
Recent research based on DNA comparisons have resulted in changes in taxonomic order at all levels, even the highest (fungi are now considered to be closer to animals than plants). As a result, authoritative sources of information about fungi on the Web provide differing binomial names and lineages for the same species. The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) on-line database, http://www.itis.gov, avoids this problem by providing only sparse coverage on fungi. The classifications on MinnesotaSeasons.com will be based on the taxonomy database maintained by NCBI/GenBank (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi).