Page 226 - The Forager’s Guide to Wild Foods

CUP FUNGI

Orange Peel Fungus, Aleuria
aurantia (PYRONEMATACEAE)

ORANGE PEEL FUNGUS fruits on the ground in scat- to your next meal. Its thin fragile flesh becomes nice
tered groups or close clusters. It favors sandy and and crispy when fried and makes an excellent garnish
clayey soils as well as disturbed areas, including road- for salads. You can add this fungus to other mush-
sides and urban environments. Widely distributed room dishes for a bit of orange mystique.
and common, this fungus appears from spring until STIR-FRIED MUSHROOM SALAD: Ingredients: 2
early winter, following wet weather. tbsp. olive oil, salt, 1 handful orange peel fungus, 2

FRUITING BODY: The fruiting body is 0.6-3.9 inches cups mushrooms of your choice (chopped), 1 clove
(1.5-10cm) broad. It begins cup-shaped, often with an of garlic (sliced), 1 tsp. of ginger (grated), 1 tbsp. of
incurved margin. As it matures, the cup expands be- sweet chili sauce, 1 tbsp. tamari, ½ cup fresh chives
coming wavy, lobed, flattened, or irregularly warped. (chopped). Sauté your chosen mushrooms in olive oil
The smooth inner surface of the cup shape is a vivid until they release their water. Add orange peel fungus.
shade of orange. Its outer surface is normally lighter (Cook for 2 min.). Add garlic, ginger, sweet chili sauce,
in color and may be covered in minute whitish hairs. and tamari. (Cook for 2 min.) Remove from heat and
The thin flesh of the fungus is brittle. There is no stem. toss with fresh chives.
INEDIBLE LOOK-ALIKES: Melastiza chateri - brown
SPORES: 18-22 x 9-10 µm, elliptical, reticulate ridged
hairs grow along the cup margin; Sowerbyella rhena-
at maturity; spores are transparent. Asci do not stain
na - smaller than orange peel fungus; grows from a
blue in iodine.
white stem; Acervus epispartius - exterior is yel-
EDIBLE PARTS: fruiting body
low-orange and felty; small flap of tissue inside the
HOW TO EAT: While orange peel fungus can’t boast cup; Otidea spp. - colors usually duller; may grow
much flavor, it can provide a splash of brilliant color somewhat erect; smooth spores.

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