help with "cup" fungus, please

[hillrover]

Found yesterday.
Growing on grass/moss/rock rose. Shallow soil, limestone.
height and width about 2cm
smell: faintly mushroom with a hint of bleach.
colour: pale brown inside and out.
flesh: slightly lighter shade of pale brown.
Quite tough and rubbery.


Any suggestions for an id would be great but initial checks suggest that an id is unlikely without microscopy so I am not optomistic.

The big question is: as this fungus has no gills and presumably no spore print, how do you get more information to narrow it down? What do you point your microscope at??

Any replies, or steers in the right direction, appreciated.

Christine

[diggleken]

Hi Christine, no, I'm never optimistic with these either!
A Peziza perhaps, but the wrappped arrangement and smoothish flesh looks a little more like Otidea, Tan ear, but thats a guess.
Microscopy? I'll let others more knowledgeable deal with that, I'm not there yet..............
Cheers
Ken

[hillrover]

Thanks Ken.
Those options came into my reckoning as well so at least I'm somewhere near the ballpark
Microscopy? Well, I have got a small microscope. Knowing what I'm looking at? That's something else

Christine

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by hillrover

Found yesterday.
Growing on grass/moss/rock rose. Shallow soil, limestone.
height and width about 2cm
smell: faintly mushroom with a hint of bleach.
colour: pale brown inside and out.
flesh: slightly lighter shade of pale brown.
Quite tough and rubbery.


. . . . .

The big question is: as this fungus has no gills and presumably no spore print, how do you get more information to narrow it down? What do you point your microscope at??

Any replies, or steers in the right direction, appreciated.

Christine

hi Christine

with a sharp scalpel or safety razor blade (insert usual H&S advice here) cut as thin a section through the whole fungus and mount in a drop of water - it's difficult to explain but you need as little as possible of the fungus but still show all the relevant features

have a look at this thread (I suspect you have an Otidea there, but it and Peziza are very close)

ideally you also need to have IKI (Lugol's Iodine) as the basic one of a number of useful stains

then of course it's useful to have a camera attached to your 'scope to show everyone what you've discovered; it's not easy when you are starting out - but worth a look even if just to see asci, ascospores ejecting from those asci (which with a specimen like yours they will do when mounted in water) and other micro-features

I'm hoping to do a little workshop on spring fungi for beginners (partially to make up for having to cancel this autumn) probably May 2012 - I'll keep you posted

best

Chris

[hillrover]

Thanks Chris.
I'll keep trying. I'm sure it'll make sense someday.
I will be ordering some stains and other things shortly so I'll make sure to include the one you suggest.
Did you intend to give a link to a thread? If so it didn't appear.

Christine

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by hillrover

Thanks Chris.
I'll keep trying. I'm sure it'll make sense someday.
I will be ordering some stains and other things shortly so I'll make sure to include the one you suggest.
Did you intend to give a link to a thread? If so it didn't appear.

Christine

doh!

see: Peziza

C