Peziza succosa

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by Michael Kuo

Brownish cup fungi are not usually very easy to identify, but Peziza succosa distinguishes itself as soon as you handle it; it is filled with a juice that stains your fingers and the cup's surfaces bright yellow. Microscopic features include asci that turn blue in Melzer's reagent, and warty spores.

Description:

Ecology: Traditionally thought to be saprobic, but recent research (Tedersoo and collaborators, 2006) suggests it is mycorrhizal; growing alone, gregariously, or in small clusters on bare soil, often in damp areas; summer; widely distributed in eastern North America, but rare west of the Great Plains.

Fruiting Body: Cup-shaped when young, and usually remaining so in maturity; when clustered becoming pinched and contorted; 2-5 cm across; upper surface smooth, brown to grayish brown or olive brown; outer surface smooth or finely granular, pale (often contrasting with the inner surface when fresh and young), sometimes stained yellow to greenish yellow; stem absent; attached to the substrate at a central location; odor and taste not distinctive; flesh whitish to grayish, when squeezed exuding a juice that stains surfaces bright yellow to greenish yellow.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 16-22 x 8-12 µ; at maturity warty; elliptical; biguttulate. Asci eight-spored; with blue tips in Melzer's reagent; up to 350 x 18 µ. Paraphyses slightly clavate.

REFERENCES: Berkeley, 1841. (Saccardo, 1889; Seaver, 1928; Dennis, 1968; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Breitenbach & Kränzlin, 1984; Coulter, 1998; Roody, 2003; McNeil, 2006.) Herb. Kuo 05280702, 05310701.

Further Online Information:

Peziza succosa at Roger's Mushrooms
Peziza succosa at Fungi of Poland

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2007, August). Peziza succosa. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/peziza_succosa.html.