Cheilymenia fimicola

What You Should Know

Cheilymenia fimicola is an inedible species of apothecial fungus belonging to the family Pyronemataceae. The genus Cheilymenia is characterized by small, stipe-less, flattened saucers bearing conspicuous (under a handlens) eyelash hairs and growing on dung, rich soil, plant debris, or other materials. When fresh the fruit bodies are reddish-orange, then they lighten to yellowish-orange in age; the hairs are brownish, and all are unbranched.

This is a common European species appearing throughout the year as orange discs up to 5 mm in diameter, singly or clustered on dung, usually from cows.

Other names: Eyelash Dung Cup.

Cheilymenia fimicola Mushroom Identification

1. Sporocarp

   Apothecia sessile, cylindrical to cushion-shaped, becoming shallowly cupulate to saucer-shaped, 1.0-4.0 (5) mm broad; margin upturned, even to wavy, with pale-tan, bristle-like hairs; hymenium red-orange to yellowish-orange, glabrous, plane to concave; exterior surface lighter than the disc, with scattered, pallid, stiff hairs; context fleshy, thin, orange; odor and taste not investigated.

2. Spores

   Spores 16-19 x 10.0-12.5 µm, ellipsoid, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline, lacking oil droplets; asci eight-spored, uniseriate, the tips inamyloid; paraphysis slender, slightly clavate.

3. Spore Print

   White.

4. Habitat

   Scattered, gregarious, to clustered on dung, primarily cow, but also horse and other herbivores; fruiting year-round when moisture is available; common, but seldom collected.

Cheilymenia fimicola Look-Alikes

1. Scutellinia scutellata

   Has blackish hairs around its rim and it grows on rotten timber.

2. Cheilymenia stercorea

   Has two types of hairs, some straight, tapered, and septate like Cheilymenia fimicola, though usually darker, plus shorter, stellate-branched hairs found mostly at the base of the apothecia.

3. Cheilymenia theleboloides

   Pale-yellowish and has inconspicuous, nearly hyaline hairs.

4. Scutellinia scutellata

   The former produces orange cups on dung but lacks marginal hairs, and as the species epithet suggests, has a roughened exterior.

Cheilymenia fimicola Taxonomy and Etymology

Originally described as Arrhenia granulata in 1866 by Italian mycologists Giuseppe De Notaris (1805 - 1877) and Francesco Baglietto (1826 – 1916), in 1978 this species was transferred to the genus Cheilymenia by British mycologist Richard William George Dennis (1910 - 2003).

Synonyms of Cheilymenia fimicola include Lachnea minima Grove, Arrhenia fimicola De Not. & Bagl., Peziza coprinaria Cooke, Lachnea coprinaria (Cooke) Sacc., Cheilymenia coprinaria (Cooke) Boud., and Cheilymenia coprinaria var. minima (Grove) Ramsb.

The specific epithet fimicola means 'living on dung'.

Sources:

Photo 1 - Author: AJC1 from UK (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic)

Photo 2 - Author: AJC1 from UK (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic)