Witches' Butter

Where it grows

Witches’ butter fruits year-round on the dead branches and small fallen wood of broadleaf trees, especially in damp weather. It is not a wood-decay fungus itself but a parasite on the mycelium of crust fungi in the genus Peniophora — wherever there is the Peniophora, the Tremella can follow. After a long dry spell the fruitbodies shrivel to dark wrinkled crusts, then plump back up to brilliant orange within hours of rain.

How to recognise it

A vivid yellow to orange-yellow gelatinous mass with a brain-like or wavy convoluted form. Rubbery and translucent. The unmistakable colour and the response to wet weather are diagnostic — few other jelly fungi share this bright yellow gloss.

Edibility & cautions

Technically edible but almost flavourless and gelatinous in texture; rarely worth cooking. The closely related Tremella fuciformis (snow ear) is the related cousin used in East Asian cooking. Folklore held that the appearance of witches’ butter on a doorpost was a sign the house had been hexed; the only countermeasure was to pierce the jelly with pins until it shrivelled, taking the spell with it.