Caloscypha fulgens

Description
Mushroom Identification

Description

Caloscypha fulgens is distinguished by its yellowish-orange, variously-shaped cups which discolor bluish-green with handling or age. It resembles Aleuria aurantia, the Orange Peel Fungus, but the latter lacks a bluing reaction and typically fruits in the fall. White forms, but still bluing, are occasionally encountered.

This is one of the most common snowbank fungi. If you're looking for snowbank morels this is one of the signs that you're in the right area. This is one of the first to come up after the snow begins to melt.

In addition to its habitat and fruiting season, it can be distinguished from the other orange cups by the blue to green staining that occurs as the fruitbodies age. C. fulgens is a parasite of conifer seeds.

Caloscypha fulgens is the sole member of the Caloscyphaceae family of the order Pezizales. Unlike many other Pezizales, it is not known to be mycorrhizal or edible. Its striking appearance has earned the moniker 'spring orange peel fungus'.

Common names: Orange Cup, Blue-Staining Cup, Dazzling Cup, Snowbank Orange Peel Fungus.

Mushroom Identification

Ecology

Parasitic on the seeds of conifers; growing gregariously or in clusters in duff on the ground under conifers, usually in low-lying, wet areas; spring and early summer; widely distributed in North America but much more common from the Rocky Mountains westward.
Sporocarp

Fruiting body 0.5-3.5 (5.0) cm broad, cupulate, elongate, to variously lobed, sometimes nearly flat in age, sessile to short stipitate; margin incurved, then straight, even to eroded; exterior surface dull yellow to yellowish-orange, bruising bluish-green to olive, especially near the margin; hymenial surface yellow-orange to orange, glabrous.
Spores

Spores 5.5-7.5 µm, globose, smooth, hyaline; spores whitish in deposit.
Microscopic Features

Spores 5–6 µm; globose; smooth; hyaline in KOH. Asci 8-spored; up to 125 µm long; hyaline in KOH; tips inamyloid. Paraphyses filiform; 3–4 µm wide; apices rounded or subclavate; hyaline in KOH, or with dull to bright yellow, globular contents. Excipular surface nearly hymeniform-cellular in appearance; elements smooth, hyaline or blue in KOH; terminal cells subglobose to cylindric, 10–15 µm wide.