When I walked the dogs on Thursday, this caught my eye.
And no wonder. As you can see, the leaves and twigs at the side of the road were almost monochromatic. This red fungus was a surprise.
I’m almost completely ignorant about fungus, so I don’t know what this is. The closest I could find online is Sarcoscypha dudleyi, which, this Web site tells us, is microscopically different from Sarcoscypha coccinea, a similar cup fungus found on the West Coast.
Maybe someone who knows their fungi can say for sure.
That is such a cool find! Love seeing beautiful fungus like that.
Robin — I went back down Fouche Gap Road the next day and looked more carefully at these red fungi. They are actually mushrooms. I am not sure what kind, but I suspect that the red coloring is a warning. I found a couple of lookalikes that had names like Russula emetica, which certainly does not seem to encourage eating them.