Sclerotinia veratri

Sporocarp
Apothecium shallowly cupulate, 1.5-10.0 mm broad; margin incurved in youth, erect in age, lacking hairs; hymenium and external surface similar: glabrous, moist, ochre-brown to dull vinaceous-brown; stipe up to 2.5 cm long, 0.5-1.0 mm, spindly, equal to enlarged at the apex; surface glabrous to inconspicuously, patchy-tomentose, tan, ochre-brown to dark reddish-brown, arising from a blackish crust or rice-grain-shaped sclerotium; odor and taste not distinctive

Spores
Spores 14.5-19.0 x 5.5-6.5 µm, ellipsoid, smooth, thin-walled with two to several oil droplets; asci eight-spored, uniserate; spore deposit not seen.

Habitat
Solitary to gregarious on stems of rotting Veratrum spp. (corn-lily); fruiting in the spring shortly after snow melt; known from moist meadows and wet areas in the Sierra Nevada; to be expected in similar habitats of the Coast Ranges; common, but inconspicuous.

Edibility
Ediblility unknown; insignificant.

Comments
This stipitate cup fungus resembles a diminutive wine goblet, the cup-shaped apothecium seated on a slender stipe. Characteristic of Sclerotinia species, the fruiting body arise from a hardened resting structure, a sclerotium. In Sclerotinia veratri, the sclerotium appears as either a thickened blackish crust at the base of the stipe, or in some cases, a dark, rice grain-like structure found in the hollow interior of the Corn-Lily stem. Ciboria rufofusca is another stipitate ascomycete which could be confused with Sclerotinia veratri. It differs, however in occuring almost exculsively on the cone scales of Abies magnifica (red fir). Compare also with Cudoniella clavus, sometimes found on Corn-Lily, but generally smaller, with a convex to plane, pale-brown apothecium, and broader substrate preference.