In our neck of the woods... Shaggy Scarlet Cup

With the recent rains we've had here, mushrooms have been popping up everywhere. I spotted these tiny fungus fruiting bodies while walking in the forest. These mushrooms are less than a centimeter across.

I discovered that these are called "shaggy scarlet cup." Cool name. They are sometimes also called "pink fringed fairy cup," which I think is an even cooler name.

Like all fungus fruiting bodies, these tiny mushrooms grow from the main part of the mushroom, an extensive series of microscopic filaments called hyphae (singular is hypha). The fruiting body grows from the hyphae and produces and disperses spores (the fungus version of seeds).

Shaggy scarlet cups are usually found growing on decaying sticks or logs on the ground. Which means the fungus hyphae grow inside the stick or log, extracting nutrients from the decaying plant material.

Why a cup shape instead of a typical dome-shaped fruiting body? Numerous species of cup fungi exist. Many of the typical cap-and-stem fungi release spores from the gills on the bottom of the cap, to be carried away by the wind. Cup fungi, on the other hand, produce spores on the surface of the upward-facing cup. Raindrops fall into the cup and splatter the spores out, dispersing them. Just another way to accomplish the same thing.

Photo Credit:
Shaggy scarlet cup - Stan C. Smith