This small Jelly Fungus was growing on a fallen trunk of a Melaleuca sapling in a wet thicket, beside a stream, along Belmore Falls Road. This thicket is an interesting area, for all sorts of thing, from Orchids to Fungi.
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| Tremella mesenterica - Golden Jelly Fungus. |
There is a creek which flows through this thicket, and in places, after rain, the whole area can be flooded. The leaf-litter from the Melaleuca saplings is very deep, and in some areas it supports growths of Sphagnum Moss. In other areas, the ground is more or less bare, but it is very dark in there. A variety of Orchid species live in their own specific niche habitats in there, depending upon the available light, the moisture content, and of course, the seasonal conditions.
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| Habitat within the Meleleuca thicket is a flooded slow-moving stream over deep spongy leaf-litter |
The area was very wet, on 8 May when I found this fungus Tremella mesenterica. Generally speaking, Jelly Fungi are advantaged by wet conditions, otherwise they tend to dry and shrivel, though they can reconstitute themselves when moisture levels return to higher levels.
You may read more about this cosmopolitan fungus here:
and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremella_mesenterica
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