Witch's Cauldron

Sarcosoma globosum

Old spruce forests, old-growth forests. December or early spring.

Fruiting bodies medium-sized, 3-8 (10) cm tall and 3-5 cm across, rarely larger, usually globose, shaped like a small barrel or a crock for keeping soured milk, but the inside is filled with a colourless jelly-like slime or slime resembling thick oil, so it is soft, as if made of rubber, with a dark brown, shiny saucer-shaped depression at the top; the outer surface is wrinkled like elephant skin, dark brown, fibrous, rough. Old fruiting bodies are shrivelled, shapeless. Characteristic features: they look like little rubber barrels among the needles. Grows in November and December or early in spring, as soon as the snow has melted, in old spruce forests, in groups, among mosses. Not found in recent years. Protected.