Aleuria aurantia (Orange Peel Fungus)

Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Ascomycota
Class: Pezizomycetes
Order: Pezizales
Family: Pyronemataceae
Genus: Aleuria
Species: A.aurantia
Binomial name: Aleuria aurantia
Synonyms: Peziza aurantia, Scodellina aurantia, Peziza coccinea, Helvella coccinea, Peziza aurantia.
Common name: Orange Peel Fungus, Orange Cup

Aleuria aurantia is a cosmopolitan ascocarp fungus found fruiting mainly in late summer and autumn. Aleuria aurantia resembles orange peel turned inside-out. It is the brightest of the most common cup fungi. It forms cups or irregular discs of various sizes, to 4cm tall.  It grows on bare clay or disturbed soil, typically along trails, banks, and dirt roads.
It has a 3-10 cm broad sporocarp that forms irregular cups, split or unfolded on one side. The spores are 16-21 x 10-11 µm, hyaline (glassy appearance), elliptical with two oil drops, roughened in a reticulate pattern at maturity.
The cup-shaped fruiting body allows raindrops to splash spores out of the cup into the environment where they will generate a new organism. It appears late summer to late autumn.
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The photos below are of a group Aleuria aurantia growing on the dripline of a large tree.



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