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Galiella rufa

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by Michael Kuo

"You got chocolate on my peanut butter!"

"No, you got peanut butter on my cup fungus!"

In early summer, east of the Rocky Mountains, Galiella rufa (formerly known as Bulgaria rufa) can be found in little clusters on sticks and small logs. Unlike many other cup fungi, its flesh is rubbery to gelatinous inside a tougher exterior, making it a squishy, peanut-butter-cup-ish thing.

Compare Galiella rufa with Wolfina aurantiopsis, which has a more limited geographic range, a yellow upper surface, and solid flesh.

Bulgaria rufa is a synonym.

Description:

Ecology: Saprobic on decaying hardwood sticks and logs; growing alone, gregariously, or (most often) in loose clusters; early summer and summer; apparently widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois.

Immature Fruiting Body: More or less cylindric; wrinkled; dark brown to black; hairy; interior gray and gelatinous; developing an apical cavity, enclosed and protected by the lid-like outer surface, in which the hymenium develops; with approaching maturity the cavity ruptures, exposing the hymenium and creating the fringed, pustulate margin.

Fruiting Body: Goblet-shaped to cup-shaped; 2-4 cm across; upper surface concave, orangish to brownish orange, bald; margin incurved, often finely toothed, fringed, or pustulate; undersurface hairy, dark brown to black, running down the pseudostem, becoming somewhat wrinkled with age; pseudostem 1-2 cm long, 3-5 mm thick, terminating in black basal mycelium; flesh gelatinous-rubbery and tough.

Microscopic Features: Spores 17-21 x 8-10 µ; ellipsoid or occasionally nearly subfusiform; developing thick (1 µ) walls; with guttules in KOH when immature; surface appearing very finely stippled or pitted in both KOH and Melzer's; hyaline. Asci 8-spored; hyaline in KOH and in Melzer's. Paraphyses to about 175 x 2 µ filiform; cylindric; hyaline. Elements on undersurface of two types: 1) subglobose to pyriform, grayish brown, thin-walled elements 8-10 µ across, tightly packed and sometimes chained together; and 2) thick-walled (1 µ), septate, grayish brown hairs 4-6 µ wide and often over 250 µ long.


REFERENCES: (Schweinitz, 1834) Nannfeldt & Korf, 1957. (Saccardo, 1889; Seaver, 1928; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Arora, 1986; Phillips, 1991/2005; Lincoff, 1992; Metzler & Metzler, 1992; Horn, Kay & Abel, 1993; Barron, 1999; Roody, 2003; McNeil, 2006; Miller & Miller, 2006; Binion et al., 2008.) Herb. Kuo 06019514, 06130202, 05050701, 05290703, 06171004, 05061204.


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


 

Galiella rufa

Galiella rufa

Galiella rufa

Galiella rufa

Galiella rufa

Galiella rufa
Spores

Galiella rufa
Paraphyses

Galiella rufa
Elements on undersurface



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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2012, June). Galiella rufa. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/galiella_rufa.html