Can’t you just imagine little Shirley Temple singing that? 😀
Red is such a cheerful color. 🙂
Actually, it’s a Scarlet Elf Cup fungus. What a cutie, eh? Sarcoscypha dudleyi or austriaca. Either way, the common name is the same…it has a couple of others that are similar. The ‘or’ part is that the two species are impossible to tell apart without genetics.
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
What red strangeness.
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Good description! 🙂
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Not to an elf cup.
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Fungi are fun! This one especially so and I love the name!
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Yes. They are a fun organism and vital to life. And the best part is they don’t move. 🙂
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Cool fungus – it reminds me of those plastic 60s chairs. 😉
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The molded ones, yes. Speaking of chairs….
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😀
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I’m fondly facinated by fungi too, as you know. What an outrageously glorious red–I’ll bet it could be the size of a pea and still attract your attention from 10 feet away!
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I have seen these before both here, although I wasn’t specifically looking for them yesterday, and in a different location. I was actually looking for early possible flowers but struck out. As I was walking and just looking I saw a tiny bit of red between dried leaves. This was my reward for clearing them away. After making the images I covered them back up as close to how I found them as I could. I don’t think being uncovered would have been a problem since I have seen them growing on exposed dead wood but like to leave things as found.
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There’s a lichen that I’ve seen in the Minnesota woods quite often that has a very similar red, but rather than forming a cup, they’re typically more like tiny stalks of cauliflower, and they are also quite striking. I’ve looked them up and am pretty sure that they’re Clacidonia milenta, commonly known as lipstick powderhorn. Here’s a link:
http://minnesotaseasons.com/Fungi/Lipstick_Powderhorn.html
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When you mentioned a similar looking lichen I thought of a Cladonia. Not cupped, as you mention, but they do make for a bright light on the forest floor, usually on wood. Similar to the British Soldier lichen, also a Cladonia.
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We are proud to have this fungus amungus.
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Especially when one is so delightfully appointed. Wouldn’t it have been cool to find a tiny frog in there?
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That would have been the best!
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It’s amazing! What a suitable title for it also😀
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Thanks, Annie! I have no idea why that popped into my head but I figured the nursery rhyme was another chance to create some smiles. 🙂
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Nice and colorful! Never saw one before!
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Thanks, Reed. They are not uncommon.
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Fungi really do produce some really attractive colors, like this one.
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They don’t come much brighter than this one although there are some striking reds and purples out there.
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Interesting! I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like that before. Where does it grow?
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These generally grow in woodlands on the ground. I believe they help decompose dead woody plants’ root systems. Most mushrooms are not this colorful, hence the moniker LBM’s (little brown mushrooms) but some are quite bold. I am not sure if they grow near you. This, which could be one of two similar species, is mostly an eastern fungus. There is another species almost identical that grows on the west coast. Whether in CO I am not sure.
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I don’t get to see these much around my neck of the woods, but they are probably out there. Lovely photo, Steve.
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Yes, they should be in your area as well, Pete. Probably hidden under leaves as these were. Thanks.
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Very cool, Steve! OK, not cool, pretty hot actually.
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That does rival hot pink I guess. 🙂
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Yes, Steve, a cup of cheer, indeed. At superficial glance, it almost has the appearance of a little red ball cut in half and left in the forest… 🙂
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I was hoping it would add some brightness for you, Tanja. 🙂 Now that you mention it, there is some resemblance to a tennis ball I mowed over. 😀
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I just read that in European folklore it was said that wood elves drank morning dew from these cups. That’s a completely charming image, and it’s especially fun to know that people so long ago concocted stories about these, too. The red interior is remarkably smooth; the impression is of great depth, despite the fact that they’re so small.
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That very well could be true if elves themselves be true. They are edible although tough to chew I’ve read. They would make nice goblets for Rivendell mead.
The cups are deep considering the dimensions. I can’t guess the quantity to be held but I would think a few tablespoons.
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