Yellow brain fungus, Tremella mesentrica Sunrise might be the spectacle of a January day, over in half an hour. Don’t expect colour after that. Out on Scout Scar, I saw gorse where I’ve watched linnets in spring and summer – the gorse a mass of yellow flowers smelling of coconut. Here, I found a juvenile cuckoo, my wildlife find of the year. And red-tailed bumblebees feed on knapweed. Forget colour in January. But deep in the January gorse there’s a speck of orange. What can it be?
The first time I found Tremella mesentrica it was on Whitbarrow, a blowsy yellow fungus that looked like a plastic bag snagged on a dead ash growing in a terrace of limestone. It’s a jelly fungus, affected by the weather. It hydrates and swells gelatinous yellow, and dehydrates to a deep orange. I took lots of photographs in mid-January ( I’m saving the best for the new book.) I knew I’d be back to see how it was progressing. By mid-February it looked translucent, even more gelatinous. Colour blanched out of it. I’m a nature writer and what interests me is the habit of a species, the way the fungus grows out of the heart wood of the gorse, the way rain changes its appearance. And always I want to know what will happen next year.
Out on a walk around Cartmel, we found more Tremella mesentrica. Same season. So I went up onto Scout Scar to look for mine. There it was, looking sorry for itself. Tiny, deep orange, unspectacular.
Now my new website blog has a gallery facility I thought to show Tremella mesentrica through January and February 2014.
Now my new website blog has a gallery facility I thought to show Tremella mesentrica through January and February 2014.
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