Minnesota Seasons - Yellow Fairy Cups

Conservation • Description • Habitat • Ecology • Distribution • Taxonomy

Conservation Status

Photo by Luciearl

IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

not listed

Minnesota

not listed

Description

Yellow Fairy Cups, also called Lemmon Discos, is common and widespread. It is found in North America, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. In North America it is especially common in the eastern United States and the on west coast. It is saprobic, obtaining nutrients from rotting wood. It grows in dense clusters on dead and decaying logs and stumps of hardwoods and sometimes conifers. In Minnesota it can be seen from summer through fall.

The fruiting body is a small, saucer-shaped cup with or without a tiny stalk. The cups are 1 ⁄32″ to ⅛″ (1 to 3 mm) in diameter and 1 ⁄32″ to 1 ⁄16″(1 to 2 mm) tall. The species epithet citrina means “lemon yellow” but the upper surface of the cups may be bright lemon yellow or bright orangish-yellow. The underside is the same color but may be paler. They are globular when they first appear, expanding to saucer-shaped or disc-shaped as they mature. The stalk, if present, is rarely more than 1 ⁄32″ (1 mm) long.

The spore print is white.

Similar Species

Habitat and Hosts

Dead and decaying logs and stumps of hardwoods and conifers

Ecology

Season

Late summer and fall

Distribution
		Sources 24, 26, 29, 30, 77. Biodiversity occurrence data published by: Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas (accessed through the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas Portal, bellatlas.umn.edu, 10/18/2025).
10/18/2025

Occurrence
Common and widespread

Taxonomy

Kingdom

Fungi (fungi)

Subkingdom

Dikarya

Phylum

Ascomycota (sac fungi)

Subphylum

Pezizomycotina (sac fungi amd lichens)

Class

Leotiomycetes

Order

Helotiales

Family

Pezizellaceae

Genus

Calycina

Genus
This species was classified as Peziza citrina when it was first described in 1789. In 1885 it was transferred to the genus Calycella. For many decades it went under the names Calycella citrina or Helotium citrinum, depending on the preference of the author. In 1974 it was noted that Calycella was a synonym for Calycina, so Helotium citrinum was transferred to the genus Bisporella. Some time before 2008, all Calycella species were transferred to the genus Bisporella. In 2019, morphological and molecular analysis showed Bisporella citrina to be separate from the species of Bisporella, and it was transferred to the genus Calycina.