It is a fungal parasite forming small gelatinous basidiocarps (fruit bodies) on various ascomycetous fungi (including Lasiobolus and Thelebolus spp) on dung.

The species was originally described in 1803 on cow dung by Danish biologist Heinrich Schumacher who assigned it to Tremella, a genus then used for almost any fungus with gelatinous fruit bodies.

[5] In 1924, German mycologist Walther Neuhoff transferred the latter species to his new genus Cystobasidium, based on the swollen, cyst-like probasidia from which the basidia emerge.

[1] Molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, has confirmed that the species is distinct and not closely related to other auricularioid fungi.

Basidiospores are hyaline, smooth, and ellipsoid to slightly fusoid, measuring 6–11.5 x 3-5 μm; they germinate by budding off subglobose to ovoid yeast cells that form pinkish colonies in culture.

It is known from Europe (Denmark,[2] France,[3] Germany,[9] Netherlands,[11] Norway,[5] Poland,[4] Spain,[12] and Sweden)[13] and North America (Canada)[14] but has rarely been encountered.