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Species Information
Summary: Aleuria aurantia has bright orange cup-shaped to flattened or distorted thin-fleshed fruitbodies with the exterior downy and paler or whitish, growing in ground especially in areas where the soil is disturbed. It is common in the Pacific Northwest.
Distribution includes BC, WA, OR, ID, and also AZ and CA, (Larsen), NF to WA, CA, and WV, probably throughout temperate North America, and also Europe, (Seaver), AB, NT, YT, and AK, (Schalkwijk-Barendsen), and MA (Perry).
Upper surface: 1-10cm, soon cup-shaped to saucer-shaped or flattened or wavy or irregularly contorted, margin often wavy or lobed; bright orange fading somewhat when old; more or less smooth, (Arora), sometimes split so as to simulate an Otidea (Dennis), at first spherical, gradually expanding, finally reaching diameter 5-6cm, though often smaller, "shallow, cup-shaped and usually regular in form when young, becoming irregular and often variously contorted" when old or from mutual pressure, occasionally discoid and rarely one-sided and Otidea-like, (Seaver)
Flesh: thin, brittle or fragile, (Arora), white (Dennis)
Underside: pallid or at least paler than upper surface; smooth or minutely downy, (Arora), covered in fine white down (Phillips), whitish or orange-yellow (Ammirati), whitish, pruinose, (Seaver)
Stem: absent or rudimentary (Arora)
Odor: no clear odor (Lincoff(1))
Taste: no clear taste (Lincoff(1))
Microscopic: spores 18-24 x 9-11 microns, elliptic, coarsely reticulate or ridged when mature, typically with 2 oil droplets, (Arora), spores 14-16 x 10 microns (not including ornamentation), elliptic, with distinct coarsely reticulate ornamentation, sometimes with thorn-like processes on ends of spore, colorless, with two small droplets, uniseriate; asci 8-spored, 185-200 x 10-13 microns, inamyloid; paraphyses with slight clavate thickening at tip to 6 microns, septate, with orange granulation that turns green in iodine, (Breitenbach), spores 17-24 x 9-11 microns, elliptic, containing 2 oil droplets, surface ornamented with a coarse reticulum that often projects like an apiculus at each end; asci up to 220 x 13 microns; paraphyses slightly clavate, up to 7 microns thick at tip which is filled with orange granules that turn green in iodine, (Dennis), spores 18-22 x 9-10 microns, at first smooth, finally becoming sculptured with reticulations which are regular in form and shallow, except at the ends of the spores where the ridges project, usually containing 2 large oil-droplets, 1-seriate, usually obliquely arranged in ascus, the ends often overlapping; ascus reaching 175-250 microns long and 12-15 microns wide, cylindric or nearly so; paraphyses strongly and rather abruptly enlarged at apex, the end often nearly spherical, reaching a diameter or 7-8 microns, filled with orange granules, (Seaver), spores 13-24 x 7.5-10 microns, (Trudell)
Habitat / Range
scattered to gregarious or in fused clusters on ground, preferring bare soil or sand along roads, paths, landslides, etc., but also in grass or moss, (Arora), in groups or clusters on hard or disturbed soil in gardens, in grass, or along roadsides, (Phillips), on west coast fruits in spring and fall but most abundant in fall (McKnight), summer and fall (Bacon)
Similar Species
Caloscypha fulgens is more yellow, typically flushed with green or blue-green on exterior, and grows only in spring whereas Aleuria aurantia fruits in spring and fall, (McKnight). See also SIMILAR section of Pseudaleuria quinaultiana.
