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

Summary:
Features include a deep cup with a pinkish to gray interior, a margin that is often toothed and may split and spread when old, a whitish exterior that darkens to grayish when old and discolors dark with handling, a whitish stem typically immersed in soil, litter, or duff, growth in spring under conifers, and microscopic characters. It is possible that North American material is distinct from the European species, in which case the American lineage could be accommodated under the name Neournula nordmanensis Paden & Tylutki (Carbone(1)).

Collections were examined from BC, WA, ID, (Paden). It has been found at least in BC, WA, OR, and ID, (Larsen), and reported in eastern Canada, (Lincoff), as well as France and North Africa (Trudell).

Upper surface:
2-3cm across, fruitbody up to 4cm tall, when very young club-shaped, hollow in upper part, expanding and spreading to urn-shaped or margin splitting and spreading when old, regular in outline from above; spore-bearing upper (inner) surface "varying from pale pink-gray, gray touched with purple, or dingy pink before exposure to gray at maturity"; even to slightly irregular, (Castellano), fruitbody 1.3-3.5 across, 2-4.5cm high, tough, leathery, urceolate to goblet-shaped, spore-bearing area on upper surface pale pink when young, about ''Rose Ebony'' (color term according to Maerz(1)) when mature; color of spore-bearing surface also given as "pallidum vel purpureum" [pallid to purple]; marginal teeth usually rounded (crenate) but may be sharp-pointed (stellate) when young, (Paden), cup 1.5-3.5cm wide, 2-4.5cm high, deep, with pale pink to rose inner surface; toothed rim, (Lincoff), pinkish brown (Trudell)

Underside:
"at first nearly white to very pale gray", darkening to brown-gray to gray when old, "discoloring on handling to brown or brown-black, when fresh with a pale gray felted layer, paler to nearly white at the base", (Castellano), pale brown to purplish brown (Paden), whitish to tan to violet-brown (Trudell)

Stem:
"expanding smoothly or more or less distinct, rounded in cross-section", paler than exterior (underside); typically immersed in soil, litter or duff, with basal rhizomorphs, (Castellano), stem and usually part of the cup immersed in substrate; whitish, (Paden), 2-4cm x 0.5-1cm, usually buried; whitish, (Lincoff)

Microscopic:
spores 23-32 x 8-10.5 microns, "subcylindric to obscurely fusoid, the majority narrowly elliptic", "ornamented with low random ridges and warts"; asci "operculate, inamyloid, relatively thick-walled, base narrow and curving", (Castellano), spores 23-31.5 x 8-10.4 microns, elliptic to oblong with rounded ends, smooth, becoming covered with warts, (Lincoff), spores 23-31.5 x 8-10.4 microns, elliptic to oblong with rounded ends, "smooth when young, at maturity ornamented with low warts that stain in heated cotton blue" and dissolve in dilute KOH, without droplets or containing a few small oil droplets; asci 8-spored, 290-390 x 12-15 microns, cylindric, suboperculate, bases blunt, usually twisted, occasionally lobed, connected to the underlying tissue by a relatively narrow hypha, occasionally a lobed base cut off as a separate cell, tips often bent, not maturing simultaneously, suboperculate, opercula eccentric; paraphyses 3-3.5 microns wide, "narrow, septate, freely branched and anastomosing", "tips embedded in a pale brown, amorphous material"; medullary excipulum about 500 microns thick, of textura intricata (intricately interwoven), the hyphae 2-5 microns wide, ectal excipulum of textura angularis (of subrectangular to polyhedral cells), inner cells colorless, outer cells with pale brown walls, giving rise to scattered nearly colorless to pale brown hairs 4-5 microns wide, up to 70 microns long, (Paden)