English: A fungus - Coprobia granulata. This species is one of the so-called cup-fungi (named for the shape of their discs). These were found only a metre or so north of a footpath that crosses the moor. This is a species that grows on dung, an unusual habitat that makes identification easier. The photograph shows the fungus growing in depressions on the flat surface of a cowpat.

Several Cheilymenia species are similar in that they also have orange discs and grow on dung, but their discs are fringed with tiny hairs which were not evident here; see 997525. Compare also the somewhat similar Eyelash Fungus (which grows on very rotten wood rather than dung): 925583. It also resembles the much larger Orange Peel Fungus: 989886, another cup-fungus.

[Many lichens bear similar spore-producing discs on their surface. This is no coincidence: the outer layer of a lichen is made of fungal cells; these fungi are of a similar kind to the cup-fungi, and produce discs in much the same manner.]

The species in this photo, Coprobia granulata, has a more or less flat disc, only a few millimetres across, with a raised edge. The outer margin of the disc is paler, and inspection through a hand-lens revealed it to be coarsely granular in appearance, as if coated with tiny sugar grains (this explains the specific name "granulata").

This is a widespread and very common species which can be seen all year round.