E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Summary:
Features include a small cup with yellow brown to orange brown to red-brown interior, its margin white-scalloped or white-toothed, the exterior colored more or less as the interior, sometimes lighter toward margin and dusted with white, a stem up to 1.4cm long when present, and growth on burnt ground or burnt wood. In the Pacific Northwest, Geopyxis collections may be determined with confidence as Geopyxis carbonaria if long-stemmed and on burned areas. PNW collections may be determined with confidence as Geopyxis deceptiva group if without a stem and off burned areas, or even (as is more common) on burned areas if stem is absent and spores mostly average about 16.7 microns long. Placement of the genus in Pyronemataceae is not certain.

Collections were examined from OR, AK, CA, CO, QC, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Poland, Sweden, India, and Japan, (Wang, X.-H.). It has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, and also AB, CA, CO, MT, and UT, (Larsen).

Upper surface:
0.3-2.5cm across, 0.2-1.8cm high, urn-shaped, funnel-shaped, nearly spherical with margin incurved, cup-shaped, "sometimes later opening with margin cracking downward into the cup in several places", shallowly cup-shaped, "regular, sometimes becoming slightly irregular due to mutual compression"; spore-bearing surface ochraceous, brown, brownish orange, rarely pale orange, darker when drying; margin "distinct, crenulate, cream-colored to whitish", (Wang, X.-H.), 0.5-1.5(2)cm, goblet-shaped to urceolate [with large body and small mouth]; red-brown; smooth, margin with white teeth, (Breitenbach), up to 1.5cm wide, cup-shaped; light red; margin minutely crenate [scalloped], (Dennis), 0.5-2cm, cup-shaped, ocher brown or pink-tinged, margin toothed and whitish, (Lincoff), reddish tan (Trudell)

Flesh:
fleshy, pale yellow (Wang, X.-H.),

Underside:
the same color as the upper surface, slightly darker or lighter than the upper surface, smooth, (Wang, X.-H.), same color as upper surface, "somewhat lighter towards margin and dusted with white", (Breitenbach), "whitish to flesh color, minutely scurfy", (Dennis), orange-brown or pink-tinged, with minute scales, (Lincoff), yellowish tan (Trudell)

Stem:
most fruitbodies clearly stipitate (stemmed), stem up to 1.4cm x 0.4cm, cylindric, expanding gradually or abruptly into cup, "solid, sometimes totally buried in the substrate", the same color as or paler than the exterior of the cup, (Wang, X.-H.), slender, embedded in substrate, (Breitenbach), slender, whitish, (Dennis), when present 0.5-2cm x 0.1-0.15cm, slender, orange-brown to off-white, (Lincoff)

Odor:
none or fetid (Wang, X.-H.), sometimes smells a little like sulphur (M. Beug, pers. comm.)

Microscopic:
spores 12.0-13.5-16.5-18.0 x 6.5-7.4-9.6-11.0 microns (the middle two values being the lowest and highest mean value for the measured collections), "subfusiform to fusiform", rarely elliptic with round ends, "smooth, rarely finely warted (seen on surface using x1000 bright field and DIC), with aggregated granules, slightly to moderately refractive"; asci 190-230(250) x 9-13 microns, presumably 8-spored; paraphyses 1.5-3 microns wide at the basal and middle parts, 2.5-5(6) microns wide at apices, "of equal width or slightly enlarged toward apices, some subclavate", "straight, rarely slightly bending, rarely with a small knob near the apex, with small guttules and granules in the whole length or middle-upper portion, mostly strongly refractive, rarely slightly refractive with sparse contents, when fresh with scattered yellowish brown granules and droplets", dissolving or becoming colorless to pale yellow in Melzer''s reagent, (Wang, X.-H.), spores (11)12-15(17) x 6.5-8(9) microns, elliptic to slightly fusiform, smooth, colorless, without droplets; asci 8-spored, 180-210(250) x 10-11 microns; inamyloid; paraphyses slender, cylindric, "septate, forked toward the base, tips with slight clavate thickenings, sometimes rather lobed with gnarled outgrowths", (Breitenbach who illustrates the paraphyses forking upwards from near the base), spores 13-16 x 6-8 microns, narrowly elliptic, rather pointed at each end, smooth, without oil droplets; asci up to 200 x 10 microns; paraphyses slender, slightly clavate, (Dennis), spores 11-18 x 6-9 microns, do not contain prominent oil droplets, (Trudell)