Species flashcards

Description

Fruitbody: 1–3(5) cm across, stalked, a regular round cup when young, later oval or kidney-shaped. Its margin is wavy and slightly inrolled. The outer surface is ochre, pinkish or pale reddish, covered in short dirty-white down and hairs; the inner surface is bright cinnabar- to scarlet-red, smooth and shiny.

Fertile layer: Found on the inner, bright red, smooth and glossy side of the cup.

Stem: 0.5–3 cm long, whitish, finely hairy to downy and sometimes rooting. Short or almost absent in some fruitbodies.

Flesh: Thin, brittle, waxy and white. Smell and taste not distinctive.

Spores: Spore print white; spores 26–40 × 12–15 µm, elliptical to cylindrically elliptical, smooth and hyaline, slightly indented at the ends and containing several small oil droplets.

Occurrence: A saprotrophic species growing on damp, decaying fallen branches and wood fragments of broadleaf trees. Especially on dead alder, willow, maple and black locust twigs; from February to April and not uncommon in Hungary.

Edibility: Edible, but of limited culinary value because of its thin flesh and bland taste.

Lookalikes: Resembles scarlet cup fungus and linden cup fungus. Reliable identification requires microscopic examination of the outer hairs and spore ends.

Note: Sarcoscypha combines the Greek words 'szarx', meaning flesh, and 'szküphosz', meaning a deep drinking cup or goblet, referring to the vivid fleshy red colour and cup shape. Austriaca is a geographic epithet: the type specimen was collected and first described in Lower Austria near Vienna.

Species description: Jean Louis Émile Boudier published the current name in 1907, based on work by Günther Beck von Mannagetta and Pier Andrea Saccardo.

Taxonomy

1. PhylumAscomycota
2. ClassPezizomycetes
3. OrderPezizales
4. FamilySarcoscyphaceae
5. GenusSarcoscypha

• Species: Sarcoscypha austriaca
• Authority: (Beck ex Sacc.) Boud. (1907)
• English name: Scarlet elfcup
• Ecological status: saprotrophic
• Edibility: edible