Black wood-fungus

Description:

Black nodular shapes upto about 35 mm wide with a thin brittle crust. The crust appeared to be fused minute bulging shapes (pic 4). The balls collapsed easily exposing an undifferentiated mass of black material.
Some of the nodules had a white bloom and white hyphae were seen around them.

Habitat:

Spotted growing on a moss covered trunk of dog wood tree (Pomaderris sp.)

Notes:

Some species of this fungus is used in the cultivation of Tremella fuciformis for commercial purposes. Tremella is a parasitic fungus does not produce an edible fruiting body without parsitising one of these.
Family: Xylariaceae