Can you feel it? There is something fresh and new in the air! And among the first joyful harbingers of nature’s revival, it is hiding – the Austrian scarlet elf cup! This tiny wonder is a true jewel of the forest, announcing the end of winter.
Just look at these colors! Intense red inside, contrasting with a creamy rim – a true work of art! Its name perfectly reflects its appearance: a small, charming cup, as if made for collecting the morning dew.
But the Austrian scarlet elf cup is not only beautiful. It contains a wealth of nutrients! It is a source of vitamins and minerals that will give us energy and vitality after the long winter! Apparently, it tastes like a turnip when raw, which sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?
However… it is better not to take any risks! Mushrooms growing in forests may be contaminated, for example, with animal droppings, so we definitely recommend heat treatment, or at least, in the case of the elf cup, thorough rinsing before possibly eating it raw.
The Austrian scarlet elf cup is a fungal symbol of spring. Where can you find it? It grows on branches of deciduous trees lying on the ground. It likes damp habitats. It took us as many as five years to find it. For all that time, we searched for it in the periods before spring and during spring, in the forests near Bolesławiec.
As we read in Wikipedia, the Austrian scarlet elf cup in Poland was a strictly protected species until October 2014, partly because the species was endangered and difficult to find:
The Austrian scarlet elf cup is recorded in North America and Europe. In Poland, it was a strictly protected species; on October 9, 2014, it was removed from the list of protected mushroom species.
It grows on branches of deciduous trees, most often willows, alders and maples, in damp forests, mainly riparian forests, preferably in mountainous and foothill areas. It appears in early spring (February–May) and may also produce fruiting bodies during snow-free winters.
The photographs published in this article were taken in the municipal forest in Bolesławiec.