Tremella brasiliensis

Tremella brasiliensis is a species of fungus in the family Tremellaceae. It produces yellow, lobed to firmly foliaceous, gelatinous basidiocarps (fruit bodies) and is parasitic on other fungi on dead branches of broad-leaved trees. It was originally described from Brazil.

Taxonomy
Tremella brasiliensis was first published in 1895 by German mycologist Alfred Möller as a variety of the superficially similar European species Tremella lutescens (now regarded as a synonym of Tremella mesenterica). It was raised to species level by American mycologist Curtis Gates Lloyd in 1922.

Description
Fruit bodies are gelatinous, whitish to yellow to bright orange-yellow, up to 3 cm (1.5 in) across, and lobed to frondose. Microscopically, the basidia are tremelloid (ellipsoid, with oblique to vertical septa), 4-celled, 25 to 45 by 12 to 30 μm. The basidiospores are globose, smooth, 14 to 20 μm across.

Similar species
Tremella mesenterica, described from Europe but reported from South America, is similarly coloured but has smaller basidia and smaller, ellipsoid spores (10 to 16 by 6 to 9.5 μm). Naematelia aurantia, described from North America but reported from South America, is also bright yellow but is a parasite of Stereum fruit bodies (amongst which it typically occurs) and also has much smaller basidia and spores (5.5 to 9 by 4.5 to 7 μm).

Elsewhere, Tremella philippinensis is equally large-spored and was considered conspecific by Roberts & Spooner. It was originally described as a whitish species or possibly pale yellow, but its status is uncertain. Tremella grandibasidia, described from North America, is another large-spored, yellow species of uncertain status.

Habitat and distribution
Tremella brasiliensis is a parasite on lignicolous fungi, but its host species is unknown. It is found on dead, attached or fallen branches of broad-leaved trees.

The species was described from Brazil and has also been reported from Panama and Costa Rica. Bandoni & Ginns considered that collections from Japan also represented Tremella brasiliensis. Roberts & Spooner treated the species as a synonym of Tremella philippinensis and recorded the latter from Brunei and Australia.