The scarlet elf cup: a cup fungus with a deep red inner surface and a whitish, finely hairy exterior that grows on buried, decaying hardwood sticks in winter and early spring. It is saprobic and common across much of the Northern Hemisphere, but it is easily confused with closely related red cups that need a microscope to separate.
Edibility disputed: sources variously call it edible, inedible and not recommended. It is small, tough and seldom abundant, and is eaten only locally (for example in salads in parts of Europe and Russia). It is easily confused with other red cups, so it is not recommended as food.
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Habitat
Saprobic on buried or partly buried decaying sticks and twigs in damp spots in deciduous woods, usually under leaf litter or in soil. Recorded on wood of the rose family, beech, hazel, willow, elm, hornbeam and, in the Mediterranean, oak. Fruits mainly January to April.
Distribution
Common across much of the Northern Hemisphere. In North America it occurs in the Midwest and in the valleys between the Pacific coast, the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades, north into Canada and south to Jalisco, Mexico; the similar S. austriaca and S. dudleyi occur in the east. Also collected in Chile, Africa, Asia, India and Australia.
Characteristics
Cup: 2–6 cm across, spherical at first, becoming shallowly saucer- or cup-shaped with an inrolled rim; inner (fertile) surface deep red, fading to orange when dry; outer surface whitish with a dense, matted tomentum of fine hairs. Paler orange, yellow or white forms occur. Stem: When present, stout, up to 4 cm long if deeply buried, 0.3–0.7 cm thick, whitish and hairy. Spores: 26–40 × 10–12 µm, elliptical, smooth, colourless, with small oil droplets concentrated at both ends; North American collections have a mucilaginous sheath. Asci: 300–375 × 14–16 µm.
