Gelatinodiscus flavidus is a rare saprobic fungus with small, brightly colored fruitbodies produced on Incense Cedar and Yellow Cedar needles near melting snowbanks in spring and early summer. It is easily recognizable by the habitat, in combination with the gelatinous texture, and convex to round ‘heads’ and short to nearly indistinct stipe. Distributed in California, Oregon, Washington in USA and British Columbia in Canada. Decline in winter snow-pack due to climate change has resulted in loss of habit for this species.
The populations size is estimated not to exceed 15 000 mature individuals. It is listed as Near Threatened due its small population and ongoing reduction in population size caused by loss of habitat.

The current name is Chloroscypha flavida (Kanouse & A.H. Sm.) Baral.

Originally described as Gelatinodiscus flavidus by Kanouse & Smith in 1940; genetic research has shown close affiliation to Chloroscypha, and this species was transferred to that genus by Baral in 2013.

Gelatinodiscus flavidus is a rare species which only is known from Yellow Cedar and Incense Cedar needles in areas with ample snowpack.

The specialized habitat this species occurs in is declining.

Gelatinodiscus flavidus is only known from high elevations in Western North America; from California, Oregon, and Washington in USA and from British Columbia in Canada.

The species is known from around 30 locations (Mycoportal 2024) from the Mount Shasta area in California, continuing north in the Cascades and Olympic ranges into British Columbia, Canada. It is confined to high elevation forests in areas with Yellow Cedar (Cupressus nootkatensis) or Incense Cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), and an ample winter snowpack. These forests are affected by changing climate; with warmer and drier winters that have elevated and lessened the average snowfall. Stoelinga et al. (2010) state that Cascade Range spring snowpack declined 23% during 1930-2007, and models suggest that the rate of snowpack decline with increase substantially by the end of the century (Rhoades et al. 2018). Gelatinodiscus flavidus will experience a continued loss and decline of appropriate habitat. This snowbank fungus has only been recorded a few times and is considered as a rare fungus; albeit certainly over-looked within its habitat restricted geographic distribution. The total number of locations is conservatively not considered to exceed 500 corresponding to less than 15000 mature individuals.

It is a saprotrophic fungus growing on Incense Cedar (Calocedrus decurrens) and Yellow Cedar (Cupressus nootkatensis) needles near melting snowbanks in spring and early summer. Appears to need sufficient winter snowpack to fruit.

This species is dependent on thick winter snowpacks to fruit. Snowbank fungi, unique to the western North American mountains, occur/fruit in areas with ample snowpack. They fruit in the spring and summer, as the snow melts and recedes. As the climate changes, warmer and drier winters have elevated and lessened the average snowfall. Climate change, continued loss of habitat, decline in area of old growth forests, and hotter, stand replacing fires are likely detrimental to this species. 

Snowpack decline in the western North American mountains has been well documented (Mote et al. 2005, Mote et al 2018, Zeng et al. 2018, Stoelinga et al. 2010). Stoelinga et al. (2010) state that Cascade Range spring snowpack declined 23% during 1930-2007, and models suggest that the rate of snowpack decline with increase substantially by the end of the century (Rhoades et al. 2018).

Protect populations from logging, development and other disturbance.

Targeted surveys of suitable habitat to assess presences or absents of this species.

None known.

Kanouse, B.B. and Smith, A.H. 1940. Two new genera of Discomycetes from the Olympic National Forest. Mycologia 32: 756–759

Castellano, M.A., Smith, J.E., O’Dell, T., Cázares, E. and Nugent, S. 1999. Handbook to Strategy 1 Fungal Species in the Northwest Forest Plan. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station: Portland, OR. 195 p.

Baral, H.O., Galán, R., Platas, G. and Tena, R. 2013. Phaeohelotium undulatum comb. nov. and P. succineoguttulatum sp. nov., two segregates of the Discinella terrestris aggregate found under Eucalyptus in Spain: taxonomy, molecular biology, ecology and distribution. Mycosystema 32(3): 386–428

Fyfe, J. C. et al. 2017. Large near-term projected snowpack loss over the western United States. Nat. Commun. 8, 14996 doi: 10.1038/ncomms14996.

Mote, P.W., Hamlet, A.F., Clark, M.P. and Lettenmaier, D.P. 2005: Declining mountain snowpack in western North America. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 86, 39–49.

Mote, P.W., Li, S., Lettenmaier, D.P. et al. 2018. Dramatic declines in snowpack in the western US. npj climate and atmospheric science 1, 2 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-018-0012-1

MyCoPortal. 2021. Mycology Collections Portal. Available at: http://mycoportal.org

Rhoades, A.M., Jones, A.D. and Ullrich, P.A. 2018. The Changing Character of the California Sierra Nevada as a Natural Reservoir. Geophysical Research Letters. DOI: 10.1029/2018GL080308

Siegel, N. 2017. United States Forest Service R5 rare species assessment. Draft internal document. 

Siegel, N., Vellinga, E.C., Schwarz, C., Castellano, M.A. and Ikeda, D. 2019. A Field Guide to the Rare Fungi of California’s National Forests. Bookmobile: Minneapolis, MN. 313 p.

Stoelinga, M.T., Albright, M.D. and Mass, C.F. 2010. A new look at snowpack trends in the Cascade Mountains. Journal of Climate 23: 10. 2473–2491. https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI2911.1