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Peziza varia

by Michael Kuo, 23 December 2024

For the most part, brown cup fungi are pretty difficult to identify to species— but Peziza varia has enough distinctive features to make it fairly "unique." Look for:

• A bald, brown upper surface that is usually somewhat wrinkled near the center.
• A whitish and minutely fuzzy under surface.
• A round, cuplike shape when young, and a flattened-irregular shape when mature.
• Growth (frequently but not always) on or near deadwood.

Microscopic features include:

• Smooth, ellipsoid spores.
• Ascus tips that are strongly amyloid, creating the appearance of a dark blue apical "ring."

When young, Peziza varia is very pale or even whitish overall, and it sometimes displays a central, stemlike structure. This stage is rarely illustrated or discussed in field guides. Gradually the upper surface darkens to brown, and the "stem" becomes negligible in proportion to the cup.

There may be several phylogenetic species included in Peziza varia. DNA-informed studies (e.g. Hansen et al. 2002, Medardi et al. 2012) indicate several potential lineages, depending on how one decides to define the species. The name "Peziza repanda" has often been used to refer to large specimens of Peziza varia appearing on rotting logs, but the name repanda is taxonomically troubled and, it turns out, Peziza varia can grow from all kinds of substrates, including rotting logs. "Peziza cerea" and "Peziza micropus" may also represent the same mushroom.

Description:

Ecology: Possibly Mycorrhizal despite appearing on deadwood; occasionally appearing in conjunction with slime molds, including Fuligo septica; growing alone or gregariously on well-decayed hardwood (and, less often, conifer) logs; also appearing terrestrially in woody debris near stumps, and occasionally on dung or manure, or in woodchips, or even in damp basements; typically found in colder weather (spring and fall in temperate regions), but sometimes appearing in summer; originally described from Sweden (Hedwig 1789), and lectotypified from Denmark, Sweden and England (Hansen et al. 2002); widely distributed in Europe, Oceania, and North America, and occasionally reported from South America. The illustrated and described collections are from California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri.

Fruiting Body: Initially cup-shaped and pale brown to whitish, with the undersurface minutely fuzzy and the upper surface smoother, with a tiny stem-like structure; with development becoming saucer-shaped to flattened-irregular or bent backwards; 2.5–11 cm across; the margin often splitting and sometimes darker in color; upper surface brown to yellow-brown, bald, and often "pinched" or somewhat wrinkled over the center; undersurface whitish and minutely fuzzy; attached to the substrate centrally, without a stem; flesh brownish, unchanging when sliced, brittle, watery when fresh.

Odor: Not distinctive.

Microscopic Features: Spores 13–20 x 7–11 µm; ellipsoid; smooth or, with high magnification, very finely ornamented; eguttulate; hyaline in KOH and in Melzer's. Asci 200–250 x 7.5–12.5 µm; 8-spored; with amyloid tips (WTR); without croziers. Paraphyses 200–250 x 2.5–5 µm; filiform, with clavate, subclavate, or merely rounded apices; smooth; hyaline in KOH. Context layered, with layers of textura globulosa and a median layer of textura intricata. Tomentum on excipular surface trichoderm-like, with chains of septate, upright elements 7–13 µm wide; terminal cells clavate.

REFERENCES: (J. Hedwig, 1789) J. B. von Albertini & L. D. von Scheinitz, 1805. (Seaver, 1928; Dennis, 1968; Phillips, 1981; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Breitenbach & Kränzlin, 1984; Arora, 1986; States, 1990; Schalkwijk-Barendsen, 1991; Lincoff, 1992; Barron, 1999; Hansen et al., 2002; Miller & Miller, 2006; Medardi et al., 2012; Beug et al., 2014; Kuo & Methven, 2014; Desjardin, Wood & Stevens, 2015; Baroni, 2017; Woehrel & Light, 2017; Læssøe & Petersen, 2019; van Vooren, 2020; MacKinnon & Luther, 2021; McKnight et al., 2021; van Vooren et al., 2021.) Herb. Kuo 10100402, 01160507, 05240501, 09160602, 08070905, 08071006, 11041703, 10201807.

This site contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms.

Spores

Amyloid (WTR) ascus tip

Paraphyses

Excipular tomentum

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2024, December). Peziza varia. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/peziza_varia.html.