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Species Information
Summary: Also listed in Morels etc. category. Features include a fruitbody that is cup-shaped to saucer-shaped or with a down-turned margin, usually wrinkled or veined or convoluted; the upper surface some shade of brown; the underside paler or whitish and sometimes ribbed in lower part; the stem usually present as a short thick gathered base with ribs or pits; brittle flesh; growth in spring on wood or sometimes on the ground; and microscopic characters including spores with a pointed projection from each end. The online Species Fungorum, accessed March 9, 2012, gives the current name as Discina ancilis (Pers.) Sacc., Syll. fung. (Abellini) 8: 103 (1889).
It is found at least in BC, WA, OR, ID, and also AB, MB, SK, AK, WY, eastern North America, and Europe including Czechoslovakia, (Abbott). Distribution includes also CA, CO, MT, and UT, (Larsen).
Upper surface: (2)3-10(20)cm across, at first cup-shaped becoming saucer-like, then wavy or flattened to broadly convex (with down-turned margin) or umbonate or umbilicate, outline round to irregular or somewhat angular when old; spore-bearing upper surface "some shade of brown: tan to yellow-brown or brown, cinnamon-brown, or dark brown (usually paler or yellower when growing in or near snow)"; "usually wrinkled, veined, or convoluted, especially toward the center, but sometimes smooth", (Arora), 0.8-7cm across, 0.3-2cm high, up to 12cm x 4cm when fresh, shallowly cup-shaped, disc-shaped, or reflexed, margin inrolled at first; spore-bearing upper surface red-brown to medium or dark brown when fresh, nearly smooth or typically undulate-rugose [wavy-wrinkled], (Abbott), 3-15cm across, cup-shaped when young, then flat and plate-like, "strongly deformed, irregular, veined-wrinkled, with sinuous margin"; red-brown to chestnut-brown, (Breitenbach)
Flesh: "rather thick but brittle" (Arora), whitish (Breitenbach)
Underside: paler than spore-bearing surface or whitish or somewhat translucent when moist; more or less smooth, (Arora), white to cream or pale gray-brown; nearly bald to pubescent [finely downy], smooth or somewhat ribbed near stem, ribs rarely extending onto three quarters of exterior, (Abbott), whitish to ocher, also brownish pink, (Breitenbach)
Stem: "sometimes absent but more often present as a short (up to 1cm long), thick (1-3cm), narrowed base", usually appearing "gathered", with broad ribs and/or pits; white or tinged tan to brown, (Arora), "virtually lacking or with a thickened base to distinct", up to 4.5cm x 2.5cm (up to 3cm wide when fresh), flaring and merging with cup; white to cream or pale red brown; nearly bald to pubescent, "typically fluted with broadly rounded ribs, solid or with few chambers", (Abbott), 1-3cm long, "stiffly cartilaginous, wrinkled", (Breitenbach)
Odor: none (Breitenbach)
Microscopic: spores 25-35 x (8)11-16 microns, "spindle-shaped with an apiculus (knob or short projection) at each end, smooth or becoming minutely roughened at maturity, with one large central oil droplet and two or more smaller ones at the ends", (Arora), spores 27.6-45.6 x 11.6-16.1 microns, subfusoid to fusoid, nearly smooth to distinctly roughened when mature, apiculi well developed, pointed, and 1.7-5.4 microns long, some spores rarely non-apiculate, spores with one to three droplets, large central droplet round to broadly elliptic, with one or two small round polar droplets; asci 350-375 x 17.0-25.0 microns; paraphyses 5.1-10.7 microns wide at tip, terminal cell 64-103 microns long, "clavate, gradually enlarged to abruptly swollen, brown individually, dark brown in mass, contents coarsely granular", (Abbott), spores 24-30 x 13-14 microns without appendages, finely warty, when mature finely reticulate and with 3 oil droplets and a pointed colorless appendage of 3-6 microns on each end; asci 8-spored, 300-350 x 17 microns, negative reaction to iodine; paraphyses cylindric, slightly clavate, tips 7-10 microns wide, with brownish contents, septate, (Breitenbach), spores 25-45 x 8-16 microns (Trudell)
Habitat / Range
single to gregarious or clustered, "on ground or around old stumps or occasionally on rotten wood in forests", mainly in spring or early summer under conifers, a characteristic snowbank fungus, (Arora), single, gregarious or subcespitose and numerous, scattered on soil, litter, or woody debris, less often on rotted wood or burnt debris, under conifers or rarely under hardwoods or in mixed woods, March to July, (Abbott), single to gregarious, on rotting wood, especially conifer stumps, buried remains of wood, etc., (Breitenbach), "on wet soil or rotting wood in the mountains in spring", often as a snowbank fungus, (Trudell)
Similar Species
Disciotis venosa is more cup-like and more veined, sometimes has a chlorine odor, and has smooth spores without large oil droplets (but sometimes small droplets at ends outside the spore wall). Discina leucoxantha is yellowish, has somewhat different spores, and is found under both hardwoods and conifers, (Arora). D. leucoxantha has a bright yellow brown to orange brown fresh upper surface and the spore apiculi are depressed (concave-truncate, each appearing as if there are two points instead of one), (Abbott). Gyromitra melaleucoides has a somewhat waxy-looking underside when moist, a sometimes slightly longer narrower stem, and much shorter non-apiculate spores, (Arora). Gyromitra olympiana is smaller, with different spores (strongly three-sided, in one view narrow and in another almost diamond-shaped), whereas spores of G. ancilis are narrowly fusoid and have prominent apiculi, (Kanouse(6) discussing Discina olympiana and Discina perlata). Some spores of Gyromitra olympiana have a broad blunt thickening at both ends. Spores of Gyromitra ancilis, Gyromitra olympiana, Gyromitra leucoxantha, and Gyromitra melaleucoides should be mature spores from a spore deposit when comparison is made (Michael Beug, pers. comm.)
