Although autumn is the peak season it is possible to find fungi throughout the year.

Late winter and early spring can be quite productive in mild winters like this one (for those of us in the southern parts of the British Isles at least).  Scarlet / Ruby Elfcups, Sarcoscypha sp. have been fruiting for the last few weeks and it shouldn’t be long before I find my first Alder Goblets of the year.

This January started well when I found my first Spring Hazelcups, Encoelia furfuracea. They were growing in Buckenham Woods, east of Norwich. I hadn’t been there before but it is a lovely place, popular with locals. Most of the site is broadleaved woodland (including an old pit), but there is also an area of grassland and a couple of wetter areas. At the back of the site (to the north-east) there are some Hazels (Corylus avellana) which were coppiced many years ago. They have been allowed to develop complexity and provide a great habitat, with multiple tall stems, mostly alive and healthy, but also some that are dead or dying. It was on the latter I found my Spring Hazelcups.

The Spring Hazelcup, Encoelia furfuracea is a species of Ascomycete fungus (note 1). It is an early coloniser of newly dead or moribund poles of Hazel, where it grows through the surface of dead Hazel bark in clusters or as solitary specimens (note 2).

As well as Hazel, Encoelia furfuracea sometimes grows on Common Alder (Alnus glutinosus) and there is at least one English record on Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) (note 3).

I was lucky to find Spring Hazelcups in two different stages of growth.

When young the fungi appear as tightly closed brown cups with a scurfy outer surface:

Spring Hazelcups, Encoelia furfuracea. Young specimens: tightly closed brown cups with a scurfy outer surface. Photographed on 10th January 2022.

In older specimens the cups open up to reveal a smooth, dark brown or tan hymenium (spore producing surface), up to 1.5cm across:

Spring Hazelcups, Encoelia furfuracea. Older specimens showing the spore-producing cup surface. Photographed on 10th January 2022.

Having seen my first Spring Hazelcups, I went on to see them in three more places in Norfolk in the next couple of weeks: in deciduous woodland just west of East Carleton, in Foxley Wood (on a Norfolk Fungus Study Group foray) and in woodland close to the railway at Strumpshaw Fen.

After after a week or so of dry sunny weather with some frosty mornings I went back to Buckenham Woods and East Carleton. The specimens I’d photographed had dried up considerably and even the open cups were now partly closed. A bit of rain since then should have revived them, but the strong winds this month have stopped me going to have another look.

Spring Hazelcups are described as “widespread but uncommon” in Sterry and Hughes‘ field guide. There are currently 513 records of Encoelia furfuracea in the NBN Atlas, with records scattered throughout England and much scarcer in Wales and Ireland.

In Scotland Spring Hazelcups grow in Atlantic hazelwoods, such as the wonderful Ballachuan Hazelwood on the island of Seil, south of Oban, which we were lucky enough to visit in May 2018. There are also a cluster of records from Speyside, where Spring Hazelcups have been found on Common Alder (Alnus glutinosus) in at least six different locations.

Encoelia furfuracea can also be found elsewhere in Europe and in North America. The Encyclopedia of Life website lists Andorra, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Slovenia and Sweden, plus Canada and the United States. I have also managed to find mentions of Encoelia furfuracea in France (a distribution map and photographs), the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Russia.

Worldwide, there are over 40 species of Encoelia and at least four others have been found in the British Isles (note 4).

If you have Hazels growing near you, take a closer look at them. There is still time this year (note 5).

And if you live in the west of the British Isles, look out for the much rarer Hazel Gloves (Hypocreopsis rhododendri), another fungus that grows on Hazel. Its fawn glove-like fruitbodies are very distinctive and at their best from August to the end of December in Britain and Ireland, though old, blackened fruitbodies persist through much of the year. It’s a species I’d love to see. There are 113 records in the NBN Atlas, sadly none of them remotely near Norfolk.

Notes

Note 1 – Ascomycete fungi produce their spores inside special, elongated cells or sacs, known as asci (singular ascus, from the Greek askós, meaning  sac or wineskin).

Many Ascomycetes (like Scarlet / Ruby Elfcups, Sarcoscypha sp. and Alder Goblets) have cup-shaped fruitbodies, but the phylum is very diverse.

Other Ascomycetes include baker’s and brewers’ yeasts, Ergot (Claviceps purpurea), powdery mildews, Penicillium (the producer of Penicillin) and Scarlet Caterpillarclub.

Note 2 – In Laessoe and Petersen’s two volume ‘Fungi of Temperate Europe‘ Spring Hazelcups are described as erumpent – literally bursting through the surface of the branch. Encoelia furfuracea features on page 1408 in Volume 2, and on page 308 of Sterry and Hughes.

Note 3 – A picture on the Blipfoto website claims to be an old specimen of Spring Hazelcup on Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) but I’m not convinced.

Note 4 – I haven’t been able to find out much information on the following species. If you know more, please let me know and I’ll add the information.

• Encoelia carpini grows on Common Hornbeam. There are two records for the British Isles, from woods near Gatwick Airport (2014) and from Hertfordshire (2004).
• Encoelia fascicularis grows on Aspen, as small brownish black cups from the bark of living trees and on fallen branches on the ground. (Shown on page 1409 in Volume 2 of Laessoe and Petersen, as Sclerencoelia fascicularis.)  Described, somewhat confusingly, as “Widespread. Reported on Carpinus from VC17 Surrey and VC20 Hertfordshire; these could refer to a different taxon. Records from Kent need confirmation, and may be referable to Encoelia glaberrima.“
• Encoelia fimbriata (Fringed Cup) grows on willows (Salix) in boggy habitats and is on the British Red Data List. (Shown on page 1408 in Volume 2 of Laessoe and Petersen.)
• Encoelia glauca (Green Hazelcup) also grows on Hazel. It is a much rarer relative of Encoelia furfuracea from Atlantic hazelwoods.

Note 5 – In Scotland records are mostly between December and May, with single records from June, July and August and then nothing until December. In France, most records are from April.