Sarcosoma mexicanum (Ellis & Holw.) Paden & Tylutki
Mycologia 61(4): 686. 1969.

Common Name: none

Synonym: Bulgaria mexicana Ellis & Holw.9888

• Sporocarp

  Fruiting body 3.0-6.0 (9.0) cm tall, 3.0-4.0 cm broad, top-shaped, stipitate, broadly cupulate at maturity; margin upturned to incurved, sometimes wavy; exterior wrinkled to furrowed, covered by a fine, dark-grey tomentum, blackening where handled; interior or hymenial surface black, more or less glabrous, slightly furrowed; context a blackish gel filling the tapered base and the cup wall, odor not distinctive; taste mild.

• Spores

  Spores 23-34 x 9-14 µm, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline, ellipsoid, some inequilateral, appearing sausage-shaped; one to three guttules present at maturity; spore print not seen.

• Habitat

  Solitary, in small groups, occasionally clustered, on rotting or buried wood in coastal forests, possibly also in the Sierra Nevada; fruiting from mid-winter to spring; uncommon.

• Edibility

  Unknown.

• Comments

  This rubbery, black cup fungus with a wrinkled "stipe" is easily overlooked because of its preference for dark woods and rotting wood. Like many Ascomycetes, it fruits from mid to late winter. A smaller relative, Sarcosoma latahense, has a less gelatinous context at maturity, but is otherwise similar, and requires a microscope to accurately determine. Several other black cup fungi resemble Sarcosoma mexicanum. Most common is Bulgaria inquinans which often fruits in large numbers on hardwood logs. Its blackish-brown rubbery cups have a furfuraceous rather than wrinkled exterior; Plectania melastoma, also lignicolous, is a thin-fleshed, sub-stipitate black cup that has a persistently incurved margin often tinged orange from granules encrusting the external hyphae; Plectania milleri differs from the above in possessing a toothed cup margin and lacks encrusting orange granules. In montane regions, two additional black cups are found in the spring. Plectania nannfeldtii, a snowbank species, forms black goblet-shaped cups on thin, slender stipes attached to rotting wood. Less conspicuous and infrequent is Pseudoplectania nigrella, a small, sessile to substipipitate cup with a hairy exterior.

• References

  Castellano, M.A., Smith, J.E., O'Dell, T., Cázares, E. & Nugent, S. (1999). Handbook to Strategy 1 Fungal Species in the Northwest Forest Plan. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station: Portland, OR. 195 p.
  Paden, J.W. & Tylutki, E.E. (1969). Idaho Discomycetes. II. Mycologia 61(4): 683-693.
  Smith, A.H. (1949). Mushrooms in their Natural Habitats. Sawyer's Inc: Portland, OR. 626 p.
  

• Other Descriptions and Photos
  • Fred Stevens: Sarcosoma mexicanum (CP)
  • Fred Stevens: Sarcosoma mexicanum (CP) -- sectioned to show the interior
  • Michael Wood: Sarcosoma mexicanum (CP) -- sectioned to show the interior
  • Michael Wood: Sarcosoma mexicanum (CP)
  • Handbook to Strategy 1 Fungal Species in the Northwest Forest Plan: Sarcosoma mexicanum (D & CP)
  • Forest Mycology Team: Sarcosoma mexicanum (CP)
  • Phillips: p. 306 (D), p. 307 (CP)
  • Smith (1975): sp. 5 (D & CP)
  • Tylutki (1979): p. 30 (D & P)
  
  

  (D=Description; I=Illustration; P=Photo; CP=Color Photo)