Urnula craterium
| Urnula craterium | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Pezizomycetes |
| Order: | Pezizales |
| Family: | Sarcosomataceae |
| Genus: | Urnula |
| Species: | U. craterium |
| Binomial name | |
|
Urnula craterium (Schwein.) Fr. (1851) |
|
| Synonyms | |
| Urnula craterium | |
|---|---|
| Mycological characteristics | |
 |
smooth hymenium |
 |
no distinct cap |
 |
hymenium attachment is irregular or not applicable |
 |
stipe is bare |
 
|
ecology is parasitic or saprotrophic |
 |
edibility: edible, but unpalatable |
ecology is parasitic
Urnula craterium is a species of cup fungus in the family Sarcosomataceae. It is parasitic on oak and various other hardwood species; it is also saprobic, as the fruit bodies develop on dead wood after it has fallen to the ground. Appearing in early spring, its distinctive goblet-shaped and dark-colored fruit bodies have earned it the common names devil's urn and the gray urn. The distribution of U. craterium includes eastern North America, Europe, and Asia. It produces bioactive compounds that can inhibit the growth of other fungi. The asexual (imperfect), or conidial stage of U. craterium is a plant pathogen known as Conoplea globosa, which causes a canker disease of oak and several other hardwood tree species.
Urnula craterium was first described in 1822 by American botanist Lewis David de Schweinitz as Peziza craterium, based on a specimen found in North Carolina. The species first appeared in the scientific literature under its current name when Elias Magnus Fries described the new genus Urnula in 1849, and set Peziza craterium as the type species. In 1896, German mycologist Heinrich Rehm removed the species from Urnula – transferring it to the genus Geopyxis – and replaced the type species with Urnula terrestris, a peripherally related species. This restructuring resulted in a taxomically untenable situation in which the genus Urnula consisted of a single species with ambiguous resemblance to the original species (described by Fries) upon which the genus was based. According to Elsie Kupfer, who had written Rehm to clarify the rationale for his decision:
...
Wikipedia