the bright yellow discs on NZ rotting wood
- Size
- Width: 0.5–2 cm
- Lifespan
- 1–2 years
- Diet
- Saprotrophic. Feeds on decaying wood and plant debris. Grows on fallen branches, twigs and woody debris in damp, shaded forests. Often grows on underside of fallen branches. Decomposes woody substrate.
- Habitat
- Grows on dead wood in damp, shaded forests. Forms small, cup-shaped bright yellow to orange-yellow fruiting bodies with smooth, shiny inner surface and paler, fuzzy outer surface. Requires high humidity.
- Range
- Throughout North and South Islands on dead wood in native forests, particularly damp, shaded gullies. Most common in lowland forests with high rainfall. Found worldwide in suitable temperate habitats.
- Endemism
- Native
- Main Threats
- None significant. Localised threats include forest clearance removing habitat. Removal of dead wood from forest floors reduces available substrate for this saprotrophic species significantly.
- Population
- A bright yellow cup fungus on dead wood in damp, shaded forests. Small, cup-shaped fruiting bodies are bright yellow to orange-yellow. Often grows in large clusters, covering fallen branches with hundreds.
- Conservation Status
- Not Threatened
Lemon Discos is the sunshine of the forest floor. A fungus that brings light to the dark. The fruiting body is a tiny cup. It measures half a centimetre to two centimetres across. The colour is bright yellow to orange-yellow. The inner surface is smooth and shiny. It glistens with moisture. The outer surface is paler. It is fuzzy and inconspicuous. The cup is attached to the wood by a short, slender stem. A fungus that looks like a tiny sun. The scale is small. The impact is visual.
Look at a fallen branch in a damp, shaded gully. They might be seen. Hundreds of tiny yellow cups, clustered together. Their shiny inner surfaces catch the light like miniature suns. They are the cheerleaders of the forest floor. A splash of bright colour in the deep green gloom. A fungus that refuses to be gloomy. The contrast is sharp. The mood is lifted. The discovery is delightful.
Biologically, Lemon Discos is a saprotroph. It feeds on dead wood. It is a decomposer. It turns fallen branches into soil. The cup shape is an adaptation for spore dispersal. The spores are produced on the shiny inner surface. They are shot into the air when the cup is hit by a raindrop. The mechanism is ballistic. The trigger is weather. The dispersal is passive.
Lemon Discos is not edible. It is too small and insubstantial to bother with. Its bright colour is a warning. Many brightly coloured fungi are toxic. The signal is clear. The risk is assumed. The reward is negligible. Do not eat the yellow cups.
To find Lemon Discos is to find a moment of brightness in the deep bush. The gully is dark. The fallen branch is wet. The yellow cups cluster, shiny and bright. Miniature suns in the gloom. They do not know they are cheerful. They do not know they are a warning. They just want to spread their spores. The intent is reproductive. The effect is aesthetic.
The cups are tiny. The colour is vibrant. The cluster is dense. The shine is wet. The spores are ejected. The rain provides the force. The fungus provides the structure. The forest provides the stage. It carries on. It does not seek attention. It seeks moisture. It finds it in the gully. And that seems to be enough.