A translucent, gelatinous, tongue-shaped jelly fungus with small soft spines on the underside, growing on rotting conifer wood. Its combination of jelly texture and teeth is distinctive. The species in the strict sense is Eurasian; most North American collections are treated as the subspecies P. gelatinosum ssp. pusillum.
Edible; eaten raw, marinated or cooked in parts of Europe and Russia, though it has little flavor. No toxic look-alikes are reported: translucent jelly flesh with soft spines underneath is distinctive. Most North American collections are ssp. pusillum, which has not been assessed separately, so eat only a small amount at first.
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Mycology is an evolving science: names, classifications and safety information change as research advances. Entries are compiled from cited sources and reviewed, but may be incomplete or out of date — check the sources, and never rely on this library alone to identify or eat a mushroom.
Habitat
Saprobic on wood or woody debris of conifers, causing a white rot; sometimes on standing trees. Alone, scattered or gregarious from late summer to fall, or fall and winter in warmer climates (November-February on the US west coast).
Distribution
Pseudohydnum gelatinosum in the strict sense is the most common member of the genus in temperate and boreal forests of Eurasia (Europe, the Urals, Siberia and the Russian Far East). Most North American collections belong to ssp. pusillum, and a further species, P. omnipavum, was described from the Rocky Mountains (Idaho, British Columbia). Records from Asia, Oceania and South America under this name have been shown to include separate species.
Characteristics
Cap: 2.5-5.5 cm (to 7 cm per Wikipedia), tongue- or kidney-shaped, broadly convex or flat, gelatinous but not slimy, smooth or finely fuzzy; translucent white to grayish, brown or fairly dark brown; margin tucked under when young. Underside: decurrent spines up to 2-3 mm long, translucent white or pale grayish. Stem: up to 3 cm, lateral and stubby on log sides or well developed and vertical on log tops (more typical in the West). Flesh: translucent, gelatinous. Odor: not distinctive. Spore print: white. Spores: 6-7 x 5-7 µm, subglobose to very broadly ellipsoid, smooth. Basidia: cruciate-septate.
