Tremella wrightii

Tremella wrightii is a species of fungus in the family Tremellaceae. It produces light brown to orange-brown, lobed, gelatinous basidiocarps (fruit bodies) and is parasitic on other fungi on dead branches of broad-leaved trees. It was originally described from Cuba.

Tremella wrightii
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Basidiomycota
Class:	Tremellomycetes
Order:	Tremellales
Family:	Tremellaceae
Genus:	Tremella
Species:	T. wrightii
Binomial name
Tremella wrightii Berk. & M.A.Curtis (1868)

Taxonomy

Tremella wrightii was first published in 1868 by British mycologist Miles Joseph Berkeley and American mycologist Moses Ashley Curtis based on a collection made in Cuba by the American botanist Charles Wright, after whom it was named.

Description

Fruit bodies are firm, gelatinous, light brown to orange-brown, up to 5 cm (2 in) across, and lobed, often with inflated horn-like processes. Microscopically, the basidia are tremelloid (subglobose to ellipsoid, with oblique to vertical septa), 4-celled, 11 to 18 by 8 to 11 μm. The basidiospores are ellipsoid, smooth, 5.5 to 7.5 by 4 to 6 μm.^[1]

Similar species

Tremella coffeicolor and Phaeotremella frondosa, also reported from the neotropics, are both brown and gelatinous, but with lobes that are more frondose, less inflated, and not or rarely horn-like. Tremella laurisilvae, described from the Canary Islands, is very similar but said to be distinct.^[2]

Habitat and distribution

Tremella wightii is a parasite on lignicolous fungi, but its host species is unknown, though collections have been noted on pyrenomycetes.^[3] It is found on dead, attached or fallen branches of broad-leaved trees.

The species was described from Cuba and has been reported from Brazil^[1] Guyana, Trinidad, Panama,^[4] Belize,^[3] Cameroon, and Uganda.^[5]