National Museum of Natural Science

Also called snow fungus and white jelly mushroom, this is a familiar edible fungus. It is a gelatinous fungus, just like the well-known edible tree fungus.

Tremella fuciformis was discovered by the English mycologist Myles Joseph Berkeley in 1856. Berkeley noted that it looked like a variant of the red algae species known as carrageenan moss and he was sure that it had never before been described. Red algae and silver ear fungus obviously differ in color. Why did Berkeley make this comparison? Berkeley most likely obtained a dried specimen. When dried, carrageenan moss is slightly yellow and translucent.