Summary: Features include small size, goblet to cup shape, grayish ochraceous color, scalloped margin, lighter exterior due to pale down, growth on the ground, and microscopic characters. The Breitenbach description is for T. cupularis (L. ex Fr.) Lambotte sensu Dennis (1978).
Microscopic: spores 20-22 x 13-15 microns, elliptic, smooth, colorless, with 2 large droplets; asci 8-spored, 250-280 x 15-16 microns, inamyloid; paraphyses "slender, septate, and forked at the base, tips slightly thickened", (Breitenbach), spores 19-21 x 13-15 microns, broadly elliptic, with two large oil droplets; asci about 300 x 15 microns; paraphyses "slender, septate, colorless, slightly enlarged upwards", (Dennis), spores 19-23 x 10-15 microns, with two large oil droplets, (Trudell)
Notes: Tarzetta cupularis is found in BC, WA, OR, ID, CA, and CO, (Larsen).
EDIBILITY
not edible (Phillips)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Tarzetta catinus has narrower spores and generally larger size, (Breitenbach following Dennis). T. catinus has a larger cup and a longer stem (Trudell). Note also the lobed tips on paraphyses in T. catinus, and lack of grayish shading. Geopyxis vulcanalis is yellowish, without oil droplets in the spores.
Habitat
on burned ground, damp soil, and moss in coniferous woods, June to September, (Phillips), usually single, but also gregarious, on "loamy streetsides and embankments, under trees, bushes, and herbs, usually on bare ground", April to October, (Breitenbach for Switzerland)