The Urban Pantheist

These little yellow blobs are pictured here still in the process of forming. When they are finished they will resolve into tiny cups or discs. The mushroom Bisporella citrina can collectively be called lemon drops (or yellow fairy cups), and emerges from a fungus growing through bare (barkless) wood. They can appear year round, even wet winter days. Each cup bears thousands of ascii, sac-like cells each containing 8-14 sausage shaped spores. This species is easy to overlook, but is found throughout the northern hemisphere.

It warmed up a little toward the end of the week, resulting in a spooky fog and disintegrating snowmen.

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I took a walk around the zoo on my lunch break last week with the goal of finding and identifying as many mushrooms as possible (in 45 minutes!). These little ascomycete mushrooms are the ones I call lemon drops Bisporella citrina.

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Lemon Drops growing from a wood fence.

Lemon Drops Bisporella citrina is one of the names of a very small mushroom produced by a fungus that lives in dead deciduous trees. The mushroom takes the form of a yellow disc no more than 3mm in diameter, usually smaller. The mushrooms are produced in clusters of dozens to hundreds, appearing at a distance like a uniform scum. Only by getting very close can you see the wonderful detail of the myriad individual fruiting bodies. Other common names include "lemon disco" (it must be an incomplete translation from a European common name) and "yellow fairy cups." They belong to the group of mushrooms called "cup fungi;" larger species in the group can be cup, bowl, or goblet shaped. Another small cup fungus covered earlier is the eylash cup, which grows on wood which is further decayed.