Peziza

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.