Caloscypha fulgens (Pers.) Boud.
snowbank orange peel fungus
Caloscyphaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
snowbank orange peel fungus
Caloscyphaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Species Information
Summary:
Features include a bright orange to yellow orange cup that stains blue-green especially where handled, growth under conifers just after snow melt, and microscopic characters including round spores. An albino form with bluish stains was found in Idaho (Arora). Caloscypha fulgens is a parasite of conifer seeds (Trudell).
Odor:
none (Miller)
Taste:
mild (Miller)
Microscopic:
spores (5.5)6-6.5(7) microns in diameter, round or nearly round, smooth, colorless, pale yellow in Melzer''s, wall slightly thickened (to 0.5 microns), at first 2-seriate but when mature 1-seriate; asci 8-spored, 110-135 x 8-9 microns, inamyloid; paraphyses cylindric to wavy, some tapering in the apical 20 microns, 2.5-3.5 microns wide, generally septate and branched 40-60 microns below tips, contents homogeneous, (yellow granules noted in paraphyses by Seaver), (Ginns), spores 5-6 microns in diameter, round, smooth, colorless, without droplets; asci 8-spored, 100 x 10 microns, inamyloid; paraphyses cylindric, septate, forked toward base, (Breitenbach for Switzerland)
Notes:
It is found in BC, WA, OR, ID, and also AB, CA, CO, MT, UT, and WY, (Larsen), MB, NB, ON, PQ, (Ginns), and Europe and temperate Asia (Trudell).
EDIBILITY
poisonous at least to some individuals, (Ammirati)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
See also SIMILAR section of Aleuria aurantia.Habitat
"on soil among mosses or sometimes attached to buried rotten wood, apparently only under conifers", generally in May in Canada, but as early as mid-April in BC, (Ginns), fruiting shortly after snow melts (Arora), single to gregarious on mossy ground or needle and leaf litter, in hardwood and coniferous forests, March to May, may be mycorrhizal with Abies, (Breitenbach for Switzerland), in boggy places and in mountainous coniferous areas (Lincoff), single, scattered or in clusters, (Ammirati)
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Clavulinopsis pulchra (Peck) Corner
Ramariopsis laeticolor (Berk. & M.A. Curtis) R.H.