Summary:
Features include 1) resupinate growth on dead branches and litter, 2) a fruitbody that is relatively thick, mucoid-gelatinous, grayish or colorless, and covered with a thin, white, felty layer, 3) colorless spores that are oblong-elliptic or subcylindric, 4) basidia that are 1-3-septate, with epibasidia (sterigmata) up to 20 microns long, and 5) hyphae that are 8-10 microns wide, without clamp connections, producing erect branches, flexuous [wavy] and distinguished by irregular thickenings.

Microscopic:
SPORES 15-21-30 x 5-7.5-9 microns, oblong-elliptic or subcylindric, obliquely attenuate [narrowing] at the base and laterally depressed; PROBASIDIA "at first ovoid, then cylindrical, becoming 1-3-septate", basidia 40-50 x 9-10 microns, curved, epibasidia at first conic, becoming slender, up to 20 microns long; hyphae 8-10 microns wide, "without clamp-connections, producing erect branches, flexuous and distinguished by irregular thickenings", 60-100 x 6-10 microns, projecting above the surface 40-50 microns, (Bandoni(10)), SPORES 15-30 x 5-9 microns, mostly about 22 x 6 microns, "sublanceolate, depressed on one side, rounded at top"; BASIDIA 40-50 x 6-10 microns, at first obovate, then cylindric-clavate, basidia 1-3-septate, with conic epibasidia up to 20 microns long, (Pearson), SPORES 16-21 x 5-7 microns, oblong-elliptic or almost cylindric, flattened on one side, colorless; BASIDIA 2-4-cellular, 40-50 x 9-10 microns, cylindric, bent; HYPHAE 8-10 microns wide, without clamp connections, sinuously branched, projecting 40-50 microns beyond the fruitbody surface, (Raitviir)

Notes:
Helicogloea vestita has been found at least in BC and IA, (Ginns), as well as France, England, and Denmark, (Raitviir). Bandoni(10) notes that the Iowa specimen has smaller basidia, 30-50 x 5-6.5 microns, and spores mostly 18-21 x 5-7 microns, germinating by repetition. Bandoni(9) comments that 2 collections from BC fit the Bourdot and Galzin description but do not appear conspecific with an Iowa collection by Martin.

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Hydnum fulgens Fr.
Polyporus fibrillosus P. Karst.