Stretched microstoma (Microstoma protractum)
Systematics:- Department: Ascomycota (Ascomycetes)
- Subdivision: Pezizomycotina (Pesizomycotins)
- Class: Pezizomycetes (Pecicomycetes)
- Subclass: Pezizomycetidae (Pecicomycetes)
- Order: Pezizales
- Family: Sarcoscyphaceae
- Genus: Microstoma (Microstoma)
- Species: Microstoma protractum (Microstoma elongated)
The elongated microstomy is one of those mushrooms, with the definition of which it is impossible to be mistaken. There is only one small problem: to find this beauty, you have to move through the forest literally on all fours.
Description
A mushroom is most similar in shape to a flower. Apothecia develops on a whitish stem, at first spherical, then elongated, ovoid, red, with a small hole at the top, and it looks so much like a flower bud! Then this "bud" bursts, turning into a goblet "flower" with a well-defined jagged edge.
The outer surface of the "flower" is covered with the finest translucent whitish hairs, the thickest at the border of the stem and apothecia.
The inner surface is bright red, scarlet, smooth. With age, the blades of the "flower" open more and more, acquiring not a goblet, but a saucer-like shape.
Dimensions:
Cup diameter up to 2.5 cm
Leg height up to 4 cm, leg thickness up to 5 mm
Season: different sources indicate slightly different times (for the northern hemisphere). April - first half of June; spring - early summer; there is a mention that the mushroom can be found in the very early spring, literally at the first snow melt. But all sources agree on one thing: it is a fairly early mushroom.
Ecology: It grows on branches of coniferous and deciduous species submerged in the soil. It occurs in small groups in coniferous and mixed, less often in deciduous forests throughout the European part, beyond the Urals, in Siberia.
Edible: No data available.
Similar species: Microstoma floccosum, but much more furry. Sarcoscypha occidentalis is also small and red, but it has a completely different shape, not goblet, but cupped.
Photo: Alexander, Andrey.