Little Jelly Fungus

I have been doing some research into fungi on the Australian National Botanic Gardens' website and others, trying to learn about the various types of fungus and the species I'm likely to come across in my forays around the region. I was delighted the other day to come across this pretty, little example of what I think is Tremella mensenterica (Thanks Elfram for the ID). We had just received 26mm of rain to follow on from 42mm we got the week previous. There were quite a few of these little growths occurring on the trunk of a fallen Banksia serrata and they were nice and plump in the prime of their growth. Don't let the benign appearance of this fungus mislead you, although it is found growing on dead wood, it actually exists by parasitising other fungi species . It appears it is a very delicate fungus, as a couple of examples burst open very easily at my touch and oozed a gooey orange viscous liquid. I went back to the same place a few days later and all that remained were some orange stains on the trunk that gave no indication of their origin.

Tremella mesenterica

These are the fruiting bodies just emerging

There were quite a few of these little fungi
growing on the same log. Perhaps it were they
that were acting as Tremella's host?