Edible, tasteless
Orange Peel Fungus
Aleuria aurantia
Bright orange rather than scarlet, on bare soil rather than wood, and appears in summer and fall.
Scarlet Elf Cup
Sarcoscypha austriaca
Inedible
Also called scarlet cup, scarlet elf cap.
The scarlet elf cup is a bright red cup fungus that appears on fallen hardwood sticks in late winter and early spring, often among moss and leaf litter. Its inner surface is scarlet and its outside is pale and downy. It is one of the first fungi of the year in eastern North America.
Sarcoscypha austriaca
Photo coming
The tell
A scarlet red cup with a pale, whitish outside, on buried sticks in late winter and early spring.
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 deep to shallow cup, scarlet red inside, with a whitish to pinkish, finely downy outer surface.
- Underside
- The outer surface of the cup is pale and covered in fine hairs. No gills or pores.
- Stem
- A short, whitish stem often buried in leaf litter, or none.
- Flesh
- Thin and fairly tough.
- Spore print
- White.
- Size
- Cup 3/4 to 2 1/2 inches (2 to 6 cm) across; stem, when present, up to 1 1/4 inches (3 cm) long.
Where and when
Where and when it grows
- Habitat
- Hardwood forests, on fallen sticks and branches, often half-buried in moss or leaf litter.
- Grows on
- Dead hardwood sticks and branches.
- Season
- Late winter through spring, sometimes in late fall.
- Range
- Eastern North America, especially the Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast; western scarlet cups are Sarcoscypha coccinea.
Lookalikes
What the scarlet elf cup gets confused with
Each card says how to tell the two apart.
Crimson cup (Sarcoscypha dudleyi)
Nearly identical in the field and also eastern. Separating them requires examining spores and hairs under a microscope.
Stalked scarlet cup (Sarcoscypha occidentalis)
Smaller, under 3/4 inch, with a distinct slender stem, and appears in late spring and summer rather than early spring.
Edibility
What the field guides say
Inedible
Most North American field guides list the scarlet elf cup as inedible or of unknown edibility. It is small and thin. No toxin is known.
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 scarlet elf cup
When does scarlet elf cup appear?
In late winter and spring, often in March and April in the Midwest and Northeast, sometimes while snow is still on the ground. It is one of the first fungi of the year.
Is scarlet elf cup poisonous?
No toxin is known. Field guides list it as inedible or of unknown edibility because it is small and thin.
What does scarlet elf cup look like?
A bright red cup up to about 2 1/2 inches wide, pale and downy on the outside, on a fallen stick among moss or leaves. It often has a short whitish stem.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- Sarcoscypha austriaca
MushroomExpert.com
- Sarcoscypha austriaca
Fungi Growing on Wood, Gary Emberger (MushroomExpert.com)
- Sarcoscypha austriaca
Index Fungorum
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