Class Dacrymycetes

Known as jelly fungi because of their brightly coloured gelatinous appearance, the Dacrymycetes consist of 1 order, the Dacrymycetales, which contains species associated with wood decay. All fungi in this class have a distinctively shaped two-spored basidium with two long sterigmata (spore-bearing projections) that give them the appearance of a tuning fork. This class contains 13 genera and 205 species.

Order Dacrymycetales

The Dacrymycetales are characterized by brightly coloured gelatinous fruiting bodies that are upright in growth habit and either globose, cupulate, palmate, or even coralloid.

Family Dacrymycetaceae

This family consists of species whose gelatinous yellow or orange fruiting bodies are cushion-shaped, cupulate, or even coralloid, associated with rotting wood in conifers and broadleaf trees.

• Brown rot
  Pathogen name: Dacrymyces chrysospermus Berk & M.A. Curtis