Scarlet Elf Cup - Sarcoscypha sp.

There is a good show of these at the bottom of North Dean Wood at the moment (mid Feb. 2015)
I have read that it was at one time collected for Xmas decorations, but this winter it didn't begin to show until well after Xmas.

It wasn't found locally by the Halifax Scientific Society when our famous life member, Professor Roy Watling was foraying as a boy and young man. Only after he was Director at Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens did it start to colonise, or re-colonise, Calderdale. That was in the 1970s.

There used to be some discussion whether our local one is Sarcoscypha coccinea or S. austriaca, but now it seems generally accepted that it is S. austriaca.