File:Leafy Brain Fungus (Tremella foliacea) - geograph.org.uk - 1137103.jpg

English: Leafy Brain Fungus (Tremella foliacea) This species is widespread but rare (I had never encountered it before); distribution map: http://data.nbn.org.uk/gridMap/gridMap.jsp?allDs=1&srchSpKey=NHMSYS0001500016

The specimen shown here might not seem very typical in appearance, but this is simply because it is such a large example of its species; as a result, the distinctive lobe margins are smaller, as a proportion of the entire lobe, than in most pictured examples. Compare a more typical example, the fourth photo from the bottom of the page at http://www.natureconservationimaging.com/Pages/nature_conservation_imaging_woodland_hedgerow_trees_fungi.htm

The fungus was growing on the eastern side of the base of a tree stump; I measured the fruiting body to be about 10 cm wide by 10 cm tall, and projecting about 7 cm from the surface of the stump. It has therefore attained the maximum size for this species (which is said to range from 3 to 10 cm in diameter).

The book "Fungi without Gills" (Ellis & Ellis, 1990) describes this species as follows: "fruitbodies tufted and made up of a number of broad, leafy lobes 3-10 cm long, gelatinous, brown or reddish brown. .... Mostly on dead branches and stumps of deciduous trees, rarely on conifers"; coverage of this species in more popular works is patchy.