Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
This tiny cup fungus, often just a few millimetres across, has a bright orange-red disc fringed with stiff, dark hairs, like a ring of eyelashes. It grows in groups on damp, rotting wood and wet soil, often near water, and can be found from spring to late autumn. Its vivid colour comes from carotenoid pigments, the same family of pigments that colour carrots.
Like other cup fungi, it produces its spores on the upper surface of the disc and shoots them into the air. It is a saprotroph, feeding on decaying wood and plant material and returning nutrients to the soil.
On restored colliery sites, damp hollows, fallen branches and rotting logs in developing woodland give it the conditions it needs. Easy to overlook, it is a reminder that recovery on these sites happens at every scale, down to fungi no bigger than a baby’s fingernail.
This tiny cup fungus, often just a few millimetres across, has a bright orange-red disc fringed with stiff, dark hairs, like a ring of eyelashes. It grows in groups on damp, rotting wood and wet soil, often near water, and can be found from spring to late autumn. Its vivid colour comes from carotenoid pigments, the same family of pigments that colour carrots.
Like other cup fungi, it produces its spores on the upper surface of the disc and shoots them into the air. It is a saprotroph, feeding on decaying wood and plant material and returning nutrients to the soil.
On restored colliery sites, damp hollows, fallen branches and rotting logs in developing woodland give it the conditions it needs. Easy to overlook, it is a reminder that recovery on these sites happens at every scale, down to fungi no bigger than a baby’s fingernail.