mangoblatt's Journal

Sarcoscypha spp. in Europe

In late winter and early spring, beautiful red cup fungi of genus Sarcoscypha can be found growing on fallen twigs and branches. In Europe, there are three possible species (four if you include S. macaronesica, a species endemic to Macaronesia that was also found on the Balearic islands): S. coccinea, S. austriaca and S. jurana. Orange, yellow and white forms are also known from these species. Even though they all prefer slightly different substrates, there is some overlap. For instance, even though S. jurana seems to only grow on Tilia spp., S. austriaca, possibly the most abundant species in Temperate Europe (in the Mediterranean area, the most abundant species certainly is S. coccinea), has been reported to sometimes also grow on Tilia spp. It doesn't help that it is seldom possible to confidently identify the species of a fallen twig. (Some substrates seem to be unambiguous, though. S. austriaca is for instance the only species reported growing on Alnus spp., S. coccinea the only one on Quercus ilex and Pseudotsuga menziesii.) And macroscopic differentiation, well... The outside of S. coccinea tends(!) to be a bit less pale than the outside of the other two species, but not always, and it also may(!) have a slightly more hairy/spikey cap margin, but this might turn out to be a false generalisation, and the two other species do not differ macroscopically in any significant way from each other. Which means that unfortunately, you really cannot identify any one of the three species without microscopy.

But under the microscope, they are quite easily distinguished, at least while they are still fresh (if not, you may have to look for germinating spores, which can take for ages). Normally, you will just need to look for the distribution, amount and size of the oil droplets in fresh spores and if the small hairs on the outer surface of the cup are straight or curled up like a corkscrew. In the observations linked to this journal entry, you will find pictures of all relevant microscopic features of freshly collected specimens. In the literature section, you will find microscopic keys and further descriptions.

Exceptions: According to @epopov, the Saint Petersburg and Moskow area are devoid of S. coccinea and S. jurana: "In this particular area, my attempts to find Sarcoscypha coccinea or S. jurana for more than 20 years have not been successful. Among several hundreds herbarium specimens i've seen all reliable collections of other [non-austriaca] species of this genus in European part of Russia were made south of the latitude of Moscow, in the zone of broadleaved forests and further south in the Caucasus." (source) The same can be said for Estonia, as this study has found out, and for Finland, where according to @bodhiheera (see comments) a very active mycological community has looked "for ages" for S. coccinea, but found nothing. In my subjective(!) opinion that is sufficient evidence to rule out other Sarcoscypha spp. in the region between Estonia, Moscow and Finland, until verified findings of S. coccinea or S. jurana in the region appear (so I would still encourage microscopy). In my subjective opinion, every other place in Europe (with the exception of the Macaronesian islands with their endemic S. macaronesica, of course) still needs microscopic analysis.

If you have valuable information to add, please do so in the comment section. Just because I'm writing this journal entry doesn't mean I'm the leading expert on those fungi.

Literature:

Czech: