Photo shows Anthracobia sp. mycelium and fruitbodies on wildfire burnt soil (left), with a blowup of the fruiting bodies (upper right), and a 400X view of the asci and paraphyses (bottom right). Photo credit: Monika Fischer.

Anthracobia sp. (Boudier) is a member of the Pyronemataceae (Ascomycota) that forms distinct cup-shaped orange fruiting bodies (apothecia), often growing prolifically, covering the surface of recently burned soil. This genome is from apothecia that grew in a California Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forest roughly four months after the 2020 CZU wildfire in Santa Cruz county, CA, USA. Anthracobia sp. has been found fruiting abundantly soon after fire in a broad diversity of ecosystems across the globe. In contrast, environmental sequencing studies on post-fire recovering soils rarely, or barely detect Anthracobia sp. Thus Anthracobia thrives on the soil surface, as a critical part of post-fire recovery.