Witches Butter

All To Me

Tremella mesenterica

Yellow Brain, Yellow Jelly, Jelly Brain

What Does Yellow Jello Have to do With Witches?

As we learned in the chapter on fairy ring and witch’s cap mushrooms, it’s not uncommon for fungi to be associated with witches. Both trigger irrational fear and unexplained ailments. Here we come to learn about a commonly sighted jelly fungus, frequently affiliated with magic in Europe and North America.

In the days of olde, before chemically treated lumber, wooden beams and door jams were hewn from raw timber. If there’s one thing we know about fungi, it’s that it loves moist wood. Especially if their preferred snack has already had its cell walls broken down by axe, saw and weather. Once she gets a foothold, she will fruit repeatedly in more or less the same place until the wood has been devoured. Imagine how unnerving this would be if you believed the old tales.

It was said that when witches butter appears, glistening on the threshold of one’s home, the family within had been …