Jelly Fungus

Blobs of the black jelly fungus Exidia glandulosa growing on a dead branch of an oak tree (Quercus sp).

This branch had been colonised by at least half a dozen species of fungi, of which three are visible here: to the right are purplish-grey growths of the crust fungus Peniophora quercina while the branch that has E. glandulosa on it is  also covered with small black spots of Diatrypella quercina.

I took this specimen of the E. glandulosa:

This yielded the following spores (magnification x600, field width 86um):

These are about 16 x 4um which agrees reasonably well with the 14-19 x 4.5-5.5um given for E. glandulosa here.

First photo and specimen take in Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2014-01-25.