Sebacina epigaea

What You Should Know

Sebacina epigaea is a resupinate, crustose type of jelly fungus with longitudinally septate basidia. It can be distinguished by fruitbodies that are thin, white to grayish-white, waxy-gelatinous, and conform to the shape of the substrate on which they grow. Although once thought to be saprotrophic, the genus is mycorrhizal with a wide range of plants.

Growing over soil, rocks, woody debris, and other plant remains in mixed forests; fruiting from fall through winter, widely distributed.

Sebacina epigaea Mushroom Identification

1. Flesh

   In humid weather, the flesh is of a rather dense waxy, jelly-cartilaginous consistency; when it dries, it hardens and dries tightly to the substrate.

2. Microscopic Features

   Spores 10 - 16 × 8 - 10 μm, ellipsoidal or teardrop-shaped, smooth, with granular content, hyaline. In mature and old fruiting bodies spores of a star-shaped form, with growths, are found.

3. Basidia

   15 - 18 × 12 - 13 μm, oval, ovate with longitudinal septa, 4-spore; sterigma up to 70 µm in length. From the base of the bizidium, the outgrowth of the hypha almost always begins, at the end of which a new basidium begins to form. No cystids.

4. Hyphae

   1.5 - 2.5 µm in diameter, wavy, located in the gelatinous layer. Baffles without buckles.

Sebacina epigaea Synonyms

1. Tremella epigaea Berk. & Broome, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., Ser. 2 2: 266 (1848)

2. Sebacina laciniata subsp. epigaea (Berk. & Broome) Bourdot & Galzin, Hyménomyc. de France (Sceaux): 39 (1928)

3. Sebacina epigaea (Berk. & Broome) Bourdot & Galzin, Hyménomyc. de France (Sceaux): 39 (1928) var. epigaea

4. Sebacina livescens Bres., Fung. trident. 2(11-13): 64 (1898)

5. Exidia livescens (Bres.) Wojewoda, Mała Flora Grzybów, 2 Basidiomycetes (Podstawczaki) Tremellales (Trzesakowe) Auriculariales (Uszakowe) (Warszawa): 131 (1981)

6. Sebacina epigaea var. livescens (Bres.) Krieglst., Beitr. Kenntn. Pilze Mitteleur. 12: 39 (1999)

7. Sebacina ambigua Bres., Annls mycol. 1(2): 116 (1903)

8. Sebacina laciniata subsp. ambigua (Bres.) Bourdot & Galzin, Hyménomyc. de France (Sceaux): 40 (1928)

9. Sebacina epigaea var. goniophora Bourdot & Galzin, Hyménomyc. de France (Sceaux): 40 (1928)

10. Sebacina epigaea var. bicolor L.S. Olive, J. Elisha Mitchell scient. Soc. 60: 20 (1944)

11. Sebacina epigaea var. bicolor L.S. Olive, J. Elisha Mitchell scient. Soc. 74: 41 (1958)

Sources:

Photo 1 - Author: christineyoung (Attribution 4.0 International)

Photo 2 - Author: huafang (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International)

Photo 3 - Author: huafang (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International)