Ascomycete

Ascomycetes or "cup fungi" are the largest group of fungi in the world.

To see pictures of more members of this group identified, click here.

Scutellinia, the lovely and tiny eyelash pixie cup. A dedicated photographer captured this minute S. scutellata in B.C.

Ustilago maydis, the corn smut.

They often get less attention than Basidiomycetes, however, due to their small size. "Ascos" are named after their sexual apparatus; (thank god we all aren't, eh, Little Richard?) which is an ascus, or sac, filled with usually 8 microscopic spores. Hundreds of thousands of these tiny cigar-shaped sacs are packed on the inside of the cup of a cup fungus. When the spores are ripe, the exposed tip of the cigar breaks open and the spores are ejected by hydraulic pressure faster than a speeding bullet. To see a video or three of spores hissing from some large Pezizas, just click here: Video 1 (303 kb), Video 2 (291 kb), Video 3 (286 kb).

Ascomycetes include thousands of species of parasitic, endophytic, and mycorrhizal species, fungi that "make their living" by interacting with living plant tissue. The more easily recognized groups are listed below

To see pictures of more members of this family identified, click here.

Geopora cooperi, found in Missoula under a mature spruce tree. Yum.

A capitate Xylaria and spore images. The second image is stained with Melzers solution.

Urnula craterium and spores

This charming red to white ascomycete mushroom was fairly common in the jungle near Iguazu falls.

This bright yellow Mitrula likes to grow on submerged leaves. We all gotta live somewhere. The yellow tip is where the spore bearing asci are located. These are infrequent in Montana, but apparently widespread, showing up in the Flathead, Kootenai, and Bitterroot forests wherever there are enough deciduous trees and standing water to accomodate their appetites.

Caloscypha fulgens
A striking and increasingly rare fungus in western Montana, it favors full canopy and shows up in the spring, just as the snow melts. Thrips seem to like them. Blow on them and they will blast off a volcano of spores.

If you look carefully at these next two photos of Peziza violacea, you'll see a wispy cloud of spores in the second image. These cup fungi release their spores explosively when a wind triggers their asci to erupt, sending hundreds of thousands of spores adrift.

This fecund cup fungus was grooving along under some aspen trees in a burned area in Alaska. Colonies of this fungus were abundant, and seemed to come out just prior to the morels appearance.

Daldinia concentrica, known as King Alfred's Cakes, are a hard shiny mushroom that looks like a round lump of coal and leaves a jet black deposit on your fingers when you pick or rub it. If you put one in a paper bag, you will see the copious amounts of black spores that it sheds. These mushrooms have a reputation in folk medicine that they can cure muscle cramps if you put them in a pocket of your clothing near the affected area.

Here is a nice look at King Alfred's Cakes, Daldinia concentrica, which is an age old folk remedy for muscle cramps.

Now here is a big cup fungus for ya right out of Canada. I believe it is a species of Discina, the texture of the flesh was like that. Note the wrinkles in the center of the disc.

Chlorocyborium aeruginascens
This fungus stains wood a dark greenish blue. Only rarely do you see fruiting bodies like this, usually just green stained wood. This fungus has been used commercially to stain wood.