Bisporella Citrina

Day 141: Bisporella citrina is a fungus quite common in the Pacific Northwest, but it takes a keen eye to spot it because the discs are seldom more than 3 mm in diameter. Since it grows on hardwood branches which have lost their bark (usually broken and on the ground), visibility may be additionally occluded by an overgrowth of moss or lichen. When the fruiting bodies first emerge, they appear as stalkless, rounded bumps. As they mature, a depression develops in the center of each bump, giving rise to the common name "Yellow Fairy Cups." They are also known by the enchanting name, "Lemon Discos."

Bisporella Citrina, Lemon Discos

Day 13: Hiking in deciduous forest affords opportunities to find things you wouldn't see among conifers. I can't say what prompted me to stop at this particular point on the trail, but had I not done so I wouldn't have noticed teeny-tiny little orange spots on a piece of decaying wood. Moving in for a closer look, I discovered that they weren't closely attached to the substrate as I had initially thought. Each little disk was supported on a stalk (stipe). The largest cap was no more than 3 mm and a smaller branch to the side was freckled with even more in the 1 mm range. "Cute!" says I, thinking that they probably wouldn't be listed in any of my mushroom/fungus field guides, but they were: Bisporella citrina, commonly called "Yellow Discos." Discos? I thought it was a misprint, the "o" having slipped in with a fumble of fingers. I checked. No, it really is Discos. Alternately, they're called Yellow Fairy Cups. They can be found growing on decaying hardwood which has lost its bark.