Conifer Brain

Fruit bodies are gelatinous, dull pale pink to yellowish pink, up to 3 cm (1 in) across, and brain-like (compact and densely folded) with a hard, whitish core when cut. Microscopically, the hyphae are clamped and occur within a dense gelatinous matrix. Haustorial cells arise on the hyphae, producing filaments that attach to and penetrate the unclamped hyphae of the host (abundant in the central core). The basidia are tremelloid (spherical to ellipsoid, with oblique to vertical septa), 13–20 by 12–17 μm, usually unstalked. The basidiospores are mostly subglobose, smooth, 6–11 by 5.5–9 μm, and germinate by hyphal tube or by yeast cells.

Naematelia encephala is a parasite of Stereum sanguinolentum, growing on and often completely enveloping host basidiocarps. Following its host, fruit bodies are typically found on dead, attached or recently fallen branches of conifers. The species has a north temperate distribution and is known throughout North America, and Northern Eurasia. It has also been recorded from Australia.

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