Witch’s Butter, Tremella mesenterica, was found in a densely wooded area of Wild Basin. This fun guy was named “mesenterica” which means “middle intestine” in Latin, and as you can see, the fungus does have to odd appearance of an intestine. It was easy to identify T. mesenterica due to it’s unique shape, texture an color, and it’s seasonal appearance (fall and winter).
This is one of those fun encounters where you see that nature has a sense of humor (that is if you can anthropomorphize nature). The whole invasive species team had to stop to get a picture because we were all very excited, we had seen many “jelly” fungi in Costa Rica so it was fun to see it where we have been working all semester. Because of it’s odd appearance and color I would have assumed for this to be toxic to consume, but it is edible and commonly used to flavor soups. Although the flavor was no described, I would assume from it’s common name to have a rich butter like flavor. Even tough I am certain about my identification, I will not be tasting this Witch’s Butter.
Species information can be found here
Inaturalist post can be found here