Scarlet / Ruby Elf Cup, Sarcoscypha austriaca / coccinea

Description

Scarlet / Ruby Elfcups are one of the true winter mushrooms, spouting from dead or decaying wood between November and April. They are also extremely beautiful things, being a deep red circular cup that stands out from the forest floor making them very easy to spot. They can often be hidden amongst the leaf litter, so if you spot one, there's very likely more hiding nearby. This is quite a tasty mushroom, but can be a bit of a pain to clean as pine needles, moss and other leaf litter seems to magically cling to the mushroom. Once cleaned, they can be added to a range of mushroom dishes. Some sources claim that these mushrooms can be eaten raw, but just to be safe, we prefer to cook them. Scarlet and Ruby Elfcups are near enough identical to the naked eye, requiring specialist knowledge and equipment to distinguish them. Both are equally edible.

These mushrooms belong to a group of mushrooms that balistaically fire their spores from pores on the cap, rather than dropping them from the gills. These mushrooms are called ascomycetes. If you blow on the cap of a mature elfcup and immediately hold it to your ear, you can hear the little pops of the spores being fired.