Fungus

Sent from my iPhoneWhilst working in Millennium Wood yesterday, I came across this colourful fungus growing on a dead branch of a young oak. A member of the jelly fungi, Yellow Brain fungi, (sometimes called Witches Butter, but this in in fact a black fungus) Tremella mesenterica is a common late autumn, early winter fungus.
It feeds on other fungi that are feeding on the dead wood. These fungi are invariably of the genus Peniophora.
The name Tremella is derived from trembling due to the jelly consistency and two words; meso meaning middle and enteron meaning intestine. Therefore, thought to look more like the middle intestines than the brain.
In wet weather it absorbs the rain and swells, whilst in dry weather can remain just a flat orange crusty type fungus. Some jelly fungi can absorb an amazing 63 times their weight in water, sometimes bringing the infected branch from the tree!