Tremella compacta
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Basidiomycota
Class:	Tremellomycetes
Order:	Tremellales
Family:	Tremellaceae
Genus:	Tremella
Species:	T. compacta
Binomial name
Tremella compacta Möller (1895)

Tremella compacta is a species of fungus in the order Tremellales. It produces large, ochraceous yellow, compactly lobed, cartilaginous-gelatinous basidiocarps (fruit bodies) on dead branches of broadleaved trees. It was originally described from Brazil and is distributed in northern South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

The species was first published in 1895 by German mycologist Alfred Möller based on a collection from Blumenau. As a probable parasite of Stereum fruit bodies, Tremella compacta belongs in the genus Naematelia, but the species has not as yet undergone DNA sequencing to confirm this.

Fruit bodies are tough-gelatinous, compactly lobed to cerebriform (brain-like), 35 to 60 mm across, the lobes hollow, ochraceous to apricot or pale orange-brown when fresh, drying hard and rigid. Microscopically, the hyphae have clamp connections. The basidia are tremelloid (ellipsoid, with oblique to vertical septa) and normally stalked, 2 to 4-celled, 10 to 16 by 7.5 to 14 μm. The basidiospores are ellipsoid, smooth, 7 to 9.5 by 5 to 6.5 μm.^[1][2]

Naematelia aurantia occurs on Stereum hirsutum on broadleaved trees but typically has more leaf-like lobes and is bright yellow to yellow-orange.^[3]

Tremella compacta occurs on broadleaved trees and appears to be a parasite on fruit bodies of Stereum species. The type collection was from Brazil, but it has also been reported from Belize,^[2] the Dominican Republic,^[4] Trinidad, Puerto Rico,^[1] Colombia, and Venezuela.^[5]