Description
Initially spherical, the fruit bodies are later shallowly saucer- or cup-shaped with rolled-in rims, and measure 2–5 cm (0.8–2.0 in) in diameter. The inner surface of the cup is deep red (fading to orange when dry) and smooth, while the outer surface is whitish and covered with a dense matted layer of tiny hairs (a tomentum). The stipe, when present, is stout and up to 4 cm (1.6 in) long (if deeply buried) by 0.3–0.7 cm (0.1–0.3 in) thick, and whitish, with a tomentum. Color variants of the fungus exist that have reduced or absent pigmentation; these forms may be orange, yellow, or even white (as in the variety albida). In the Netherlands, white fruit bodies have been found growing in the polders.
Sarcoscypha coccinea is one of several fungi whose fruit bodies have been noted to make a "puffing" sound—an audible manifestation of spore-discharge where thousands of asci simultaneously explode to release a cloud of spores.
Spores are 26–40 by 10–12 µm, elliptical, smooth, hyaline (translucent), and have small lipid droplets concentrated at either end. The droplets are refractive to light and visible with light microscopy. In older, dried specimens (such as herbarium material), the droplets may coalesce and hinder the identification of species. Depending on their geographical origin, the spores may have a delicate mucilaginous sheath or "envelope"; European specimens are devoid of an envelope while specimens from North America invariably have one.
The asci are long and cylindrical, and taper into a short stem-like base; they measure 300–375 by 14–16 µm. Although in most Pezizales all of the ascospores are formed simultaneously through delimitation by an inner and outer membrane, in S. coccinea the ascospores located in the basal parts of the ascus develop faster. The paraphyses (sterile filamentous hyphae present in the hymenium) are about 3 µm wide (and only slightly thickened at the apex), and contain red pigment granules.
Read more about this topic: Sarcoscypha Coccinea
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“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)