Early spring mushroom season
Photo: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Scarlet elf cup
| Scarlet elf cup | Harilik karikseen |
One of the most common spring mushrooms, pretty but non-edible.
The scarlet elf cup with its bright red inner surface grows in early spring forests, still grey with debris, particularly on decaying alder and hazel twigs in wet areas. We seldom see fungi as red as this one.
The red spring mushroom (Microstoma protracta) is very similar but much rarer and more pink-coloured.
If you lift up a branch with fungi and gently shake it a white cloud appears: the spores burst out from the fruiting body. This messenger of mushroom spring appears immediately after the melting of the snow and decorative Sarcoscypha fungi are there until the second half of May.
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