Flourishing Fungi: Snow Fungus

By Nicolette L. Cagle, Ph.D., July 26, 2026

Location: Duke Forest, Durham, NC near New Hope Creek and Hollow Rock

The humid air and moist ground had turned the world into a wonderland of the bizarre, letting loose towering white mushrooms that reached my knee, pairs of greenhouse millipedes entwined on trees, and a determined toad hopping across the rocky terrain.

One of these wonders was a frilly white mushroom, nearly translucent and rubbery, clumped on a fallen log. This was Snow Fungus (Tremella fuciformis), a species recorded and illustrated in North Carolina more than one hundred years ago by UNC botanist William Chambers Coker.

I was with two talented Duke Kunshan University undergraduate students when we spotted this fungus, and one of them immediately pointed out how similar it was to a fungus eaten in China, so I decided to do some investigating.

It turns out that this species of Snow Fungus occurs in both the United States and China. In China, it is not only consumed and sold in markets but also cultivated. More than 90 percent of China’s Snow Fungus is produced in Fujian Province, mostly in Gutian County.

Chinese literature on cultivation reveals a key need of this species: other fungi! Snow Fungus is, in fact, parasitic on other fungi, including Annulohypoxylon stygium, a wood-decay fungus used in its cultivation. In the wild, this relationship unfolds within decaying wood, like the fallen log where we spotted the species.

In terms of edibility, Snow Fungus is described as mild in flavor and prized more for its unusual soft-yet-crisp, gelatinous texture than for its taste. And humans probably aren’t the only species that eats it. While I found little published research identifying animals that consume wild Snow Fungus directly, deer and slugs eat fungi in North America, while mites are known to feed on T. fuciformis mycelia in mushroom cultivation in China.

If you have the chance, explore the woods after heavy rains on a warm day late in summer. The flourishing fungi will provide opportunities for astonishment and, sometimes, sustenance. But before eating any wild fungus, remember to consult a trusted expert. There are many look-alikes, some fungi are poisonous or deadly, and even an otherwise edible mushroom can accumulate contaminants from its substrate.

References 

Coker, W. C. (1920). Notes on the lower Basidiomycetes of North Carolina. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, 35(3), 113–182. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24331482

Heithaus, J. (2020, April 4). Witches’ butter. Reading Earth. https://readingearthblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/04/witches-butter/

Kuo, M. (2008, November). Tremella fuciformis. MushroomExpert.Com. https://www.mushroomexpert.com/tremella_fuciformis.html

Lan, Q., Lu, Z., Ke, B., Liao, J., Zeng, H., & Fan, Q.-H. (2022). Damages of Tyrophagus communis to a variety of edible fungi. Zoosymposia, 22, 309. https://doi.org/10.11646/zoosymposia.22.1.191

Ling, Z. L., Ma, X. B., Zhao, R. L., Cao, B., Huang, C. Y., Zhao, Q., Tan, H., Kong, F. J., He, M. Q., & Hyde, K. D. (2025). Overview of the Chinese edible fungi industry and developing trends analysis. Mycosphere, 16(1), 2712–2775. https://doi.org/10.5943/mycosphere/16/1/17

Ma, X., Yang, M., He, Y., Zhai, C., & Li, C. (2021). A review on the production, structure, bioactivities and applications of Tremella polysaccharides. International Journal of Immunopathology and Pharmacology, 35, 20587384211000541. https://doi.org/10.1177/20587384211000541

Mycological Society of America. (2024, December). Inoculum [Newsletter; cover photograph of Tremella fuciformis in Duke Forest submitted by Amanda Wilson]. https://msafungi.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Inoculum-December-2024-v.2-1.pdf

People’s Daily Online. (2024, December 17). Tremella mushroom cultivation in Gutian contributes to global development. Fujian Provincial People’s Government. https://www.fj.gov.cn/english/news/202412/t20241217_6593256.htm

Volk, T. J. (2006, January). Tremella fuciformis, the snow fungus: An edible jelly fungus. University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. https://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/jan2006.html

Wang, R., Cao, H., & Zhang, J. (2015). Scientific explorations of the snow fungus (Tremella fuciformis Berk.) in Republican China: A brief review. Indian Journal of History of Science, 50(2), 340–344. https://doi.org/10.16943/ijhs/2015/v50i2/48244

Wu, J., & Zhang, Z.-Q. (1993). Host feeding, damage and control of the mushroom pest, Brennandania lambi (Acari: Pygmephoroidea) in China. Experimental and Applied Acarology, 17, 233–240. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00118440