Species details
Common cudonia
Cudonia circinans
Poisonous
Photo: Sava Krstic (sava) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Photo source · License
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Description
A small pale yellow-brown gelatinous ascomycete with an irregular flattened head that may grow in dense rings.
Identification features
Head about 1–3 cm wide, pale yellow to ochre-brownish, slippery, gelatinous, irregularly rounded, lumpy and wrinkled. Stem up to about 3 cm tall, similarly coloured and sometimes longitudinally wrinkled.
Identification checklist
Check the small pale yellow-brown gelatinous flattened head, growth in spruce needle litter and often ring-like arrangement.
How to separate similar species
Leotia lubrica can be similar but has a more cap-like head. Because gobe.si lists Cudonia circinans as deadly poisonous, no similar species should be judged edible from a photo alone.
Habitat
Grows in grassy mountain spruce woodland on needle litter, often in dense groups or fairy rings, in late summer and autumn; rare.
Fruiting period
August, September, October