Sarcoscypha austriaca
Photo coming
Inedible
Scarlet Elf Cup
Sarcoscypha austriaca
Deep scarlet rather than orange, deeper and more cup-shaped, and grows on buried sticks in early spring.
Orange Peel Fungus
Aleuria aurantia
Edible, tasteless
Also called orange fairy cup, orange peel.
Orange peel fungus is a bright orange cup fungus that grows on bare, disturbed soil along roads, paths and trails. It looks like a dropped piece of orange peel, with a vivid orange inside and a paler, downy outside. It is brittle and has little flavor.
The tell
A bright orange, brittle cup on bare soil that looks like a discarded piece of orange peel.
Field marks
What to look at
Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.
- Cap
- No cap. A shallow cup or saucer, often split, wavy or flattened, bright orange inside, paler and finely downy outside.
- Underside
- The outer surface of the cup is pale orange to whitish and minutely fuzzy. No gills or pores.
- Stem
- None. The cup sits directly on the soil.
- Flesh
- Thin, brittle and orange.
- Spore print
- White.
- Size
- Cup 3/4 to 4 inches (2 to 10 cm) across.
Where and when
Where and when it grows
- Habitat
- Roadsides, trail edges, lawns, gravel, landscaped beds and other bare or disturbed ground, often in groups.
- Grows on
- Bare soil, clay and gravel.
- Season
- Late summer through fall; fall through winter on the Pacific Coast.
- Range
- Across North America.
Lookalikes
What the orange peel fungus gets confused with
Each card says how to tell the two apart.
Eyelash cup (Scutellinia scutellata)
Much smaller, under 1/2 inch, red-orange, with a fringe of stiff black hairs around the rim.
Spring orange peel (Caloscypha fulgens)
Yellow-orange cup that stains blue-green, growing under conifers in spring near melting snow.
Edibility
What the field guides say
Edible, tasteless
Field guides list orange peel fungus as edible but with little flavor, and it is thin and brittle. It is not known to be toxic. No dangerous mushroom in North America resembles it closely.
This page states what field guides record. It is not advice to eat, taste or handle anything, and a photo cannot settle edibility. If someone has eaten a wild mushroom that may be toxic, call poison control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) right away, before symptoms start: the deadliest species act hours later.
FAQ
Questions about the orange peel fungus
Is orange peel fungus edible?
Field guides list it as edible but nearly tasteless. It is thin and brittle, and it is not known to be toxic.
Where does orange peel fungus grow?
On bare or disturbed soil: roadsides, trail edges, gravel and landscaped beds. It fruits from late summer into fall, and through winter on the Pacific Coast.
What does orange peel fungus look like?
A bright orange, wavy cup or saucer up to about 4 inches wide, sitting directly on the soil. The outside is paler and slightly fuzzy, like the inside of an orange peel.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- Aleuria aurantia
MushroomExpert.com
- Aleuria aurantia
MykoWeb, California Fungi
- Aleuria aurantia
Index Fungorum
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