Two for identification and one just for appreciation. The first one -- I hope they come in order -- may be related to the eyelash fungus, Scutellinia scutellata, except instead of a hairy rim it is more stellate. And different colour of course but looking similarly custard-filled. They are small -- about 4 mm across or less. In the lower part of the picture there is one which is a bit more bluish and smaller than the others. It is the clearest in terms of features, probably the youngest. The ones on the left were growing on a douglas fir cone, on the right on a leaf. The next two images are of another group of small cups growing on a doug fir cone. They are plainer and a bit larger, up to 1 cm across, with not much in the way of describable features except the wrinkling of the stems / undersides. Last one is for appreciation. When I first saw it, it was fairly unimpressive: a largeish sphere-like thing, dirty off-white, rumpled, with a small accidental-looking hole in the top. Inside -- my goodness, smooth and brilliantly coloured, a kind of dark bluish fuchsia. It was impossible to photograph the interior so I just left it. Image attached is what it looked like a week later, more broken but much more open, duller in colour but still splendid in its way. About 6 or 7 cm across. Sarcosphaera coronaria. Happy trails, Mike
Oboy Mike I love the fungus in photo #1 - thank you for finding this critter and posting this photo! I will be looking for this - I've never seen it before & wish I had it right here in front of me! - Would you say 4-5mm across? - Were they all growing from rotting leaves or were any growing from soil or wood? - Were the leaves all Salal? - Was this recently, the past week? - The colour looks greenish-yellow in the photo: Was the colour the same in reality or was it leaning more yellowish? - Any short stem or was the disc attached directly to the leaf? If a stem, was it the same colour? Or if you see it again could you let me know if stem present Very intriguing! Will see if I can come up with a potential ID, and if not I will ask for help from some folks with more asco knowledge. Photo #2 & 3 .... Good documentation - the substrate and the underside of the cap are prime characters. Ciboria rufofusca is a good possibility, but I'd like to look a little deeper at what others species might resemble this. Photo #4 Beautiful! Thanks, frog
My goodness, sorry I didn't get back till now. Thanks for the appreciation from both of you. For Frog, thanks for the Ciboria tip, that looks about right from what I've seen so far. And regarding the first little guys, my memory doesn't really offer any more information than what I've already written, so with that, I'd have to say they were max 4 mm across; the smaller, more bluish one would have been maybe only half that. And the ones on the left were definitely growing on a doug-fir cone, while those on the right (a few cm away) growing on a leaf. I don't think I noted what kind of leaf but I remember the place well (as it turns out) and it would very likely be salal, which is what it looks like also. The white stuff over everything in that first pic might also give an idea of size, that being the ubiquitous pollen of the time, I imagine. For Daniel, yes happy, honoured in fact, to release the Sarcosphaera image for the Botpic of the Day, sorry again for tardy reply. Cheers, Mike.