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Species Information
Summary: Pithya vulgaris produces bright orange discs on wet, dead, usually detached branch tips of Abies and Sequoia, often near snowbanks in spring.
It is found at least in BC, WA, OR, ID, and CA, (Larsen).
Upper surface: 0.1-1.5cm wide, at first somewhat cylindric, becoming cushion-shaped to disc-shaped, flat to slightly convex; bright orange, (Castellano), reaching 1.2cm wide, at first nearly spherical, becoming nearly disc-shaped, becoming irregular in form when old, surface flat or convex; bright orange; margin free or touching substrate, (Seaver)
Underside: tinged with color of upper surface at margin and paler and whiter towards base; bald near margin, "with white anchoring hyphae toward the base", (Castellano), whitish or yellowish white, surrounded at base by growth of white mycelium, (Seaver)
Stem: short if present (Castellano)
Microscopic: spores 12-14 microns in diameter, round, colorless, without droplets; asci to 300-325 microns long, inamyloid, (Castellano), spores reaching 12-14 microns in diameter, round, at first granular within, later with one large oil-drop, 1-seriate; asci reaching length of 300-325 microns, and diameter of 15 microns; paraphyses slightly enlarged in upper part, reaching width of 3-4 microns at tip, (Seaver)
Habitat / Range
"on wet, dead, usually detached branch tips (with needles) and twigs of Abies and Sequoia, in montane areas often within several yards of snowbanks or within a few weeks of snowmelt", March to May, also in fall, (Castellano), gregarious on foliage and bark on Abies, Sequoia, and Libocedrus, (Seaver), on branches and needles of Abies, more rarely Picea, (Hansen, for Europe)
Similar Species
Pithya cupressina occurs on foliage of Juniperus, Cupressus, Thuja, and Sequoia, (Seaver), and is 0.2-0.5cm in width.
