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Peziza succosa

[ Ascomycota > Pezizales > Pezizaceae > Peziza . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

Brownish cup fungi are not usually very easy to identify, but Peziza succosa distinguishes itself as soon as you handle it; it is filled with a juice that stains your fingers and the cup's surfaces bright yellow. Microscopic features include asci that turn blue in Melzer's reagent, and warty spores. Peziza michelii also has yellowing flesh, but its upper surface is purple to lavender (at least, when fresh) and it is a little less, well, juicy.

Description:

Ecology: Traditionally thought to be saprobic, but recent research (Tedersoo and collaborators, 2006) suggests it may be mycorrhizal; growing alone, gregariously, or in small clusters on bare soil or in moss, often in damp areas; summer; widely distributed in eastern North America, but rare west of the Great Plains.

Fruiting Body: Cup-shaped when young, remaining so in maturity, or becoming saucer-shaped; when clustered becoming pinched and contorted; 1.5-6 cm across; upper surface bald, beige to grayish brown or yellowish brown (or, in age, yellow); undersurface bald or very finely fuzzy, pale (often contrasting with the inner surface when fresh and young), sometimes stained yellow to greenish yellow; stem absent; attached to the substrate at a central location; odor and taste not distinctive; flesh whitish to brownish, when squeezed exuding a juice that stains surfaces bright yellow to greenish yellow.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 15-17.5 x 7-8.5 µ; at maturity warty; ellipsoid; biguttulate. Asci eight-spored; with blue tips in Melzer's reagent; up to 350 x 18 µ. Paraphyses with rounded or subclavate apices 3-7 µ wide.


REFERENCES: Berkeley, 1841. (Saccardo, 1889; Seaver, 1928; Dennis, 1968; Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Breitenbach & Kränzlin, 1984; Phillips, 1991/2005; Roody, 2003; McNeil, 2006; Kuo & Methven, 2010.) Herb. Kuo 05280702, 05310701, 06140903, 07300910, 05071101, 06091301.


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Peziza succosa

Peziza succosa

Peziza succosa

Peziza succosa

Peziza succosa

Peziza succosa
Ascus tip and spores in Melzer's reagent



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Kuo, M. (2013, December). Peziza succosa. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: December://www.mushroomexpert.com/peziza_succosa.html.