Orange Peel Fungus

Orange Peel Fungus is a conspicuous, widespread, and very common cup fungus.

It is found in summer and fall, usually on bare, often clayey soil, on roadsides, trails, and other disturbed areas. It is sometimes found on moss or grass. It may be scattered but usually grows in clusters of caps that sometimes fuse together.

There is no stalk.

The cap is round and cup-shaped when it first emerges, becoming saucer-shaped and flat or wavy when mature. When clustered, the caps are often irregularly shaped, contorted. Mature caps may be ¾″ to 4″ in diameter. The upper side is bright orange and hairless, fading to yellowish-orange with age. The underside is paler and densely covered with minute, white, downy hairs when young, becoming hairless as it ages. The margin is often wavy or lobed. There is no fringe of dark hairs on the margin.

The flesh is thin and brittle. It is edible but bland, fragile, and insubstantial.

Stalked Orange Peel Fungus (Sowerbyella rhenana) is smaller, no more than ¾″ in diameter, and is distinctly stalked. It is much less common in Minnesota.

Bare ground

Summer and fall

Sources

4, 7, 24, 26, 29, 30, 77.

Very common and widespread

Found in leaf litter at the trailhead off Hwy 61

Spring Orange Peel fungus spore liberation
embersmushrooms

Orange peel fungus - spore release
saltpeterfilms

Alfredo Colon
7/7/2024

Location: Albany, NY

Kate S.
5/17/2024

Location: Temperance River Falls, Schroeder, MN

Found in leaf litter at the trailhead off Hwy 61

Location: Hennepin County

Location: Miesville Ravine Park Reserve

Location: Oxbow park, near Byron MN (Olmsted county)

Saw in several different locations along hiking trail, always growing on small stick laying on forest floor.

Location: Lebanon Hills Regional Park