Gyromitra californica (W. Phillips) Raitv.
California false morel
Discinaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
California false morel
Discinaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Species Information
Summary:
Features include 1) the umbrella-like or wavy or occasionally saddle-shaped cap that is tan to brown, olive-brown, or light to dark grayish brown on the upper side, and white or creamy and strongly ribbed on the downy underside, 2) the stem whitish usually with pinkish or purplish tints or blotches, deeply ribbed, downy, and often short, 3) growth on the ground or coniferous wood in late spring and summer, and 4) elliptic spores with 2 droplets but without apiculi. Trudell(4) describe it as having the appearance of a hybrid mushroom: "a gyromitra-like cap mounted on a helvella-like fluted stipe". The online Species Fungorum, accessed June 1, 2014, gave the current name as Pseudorhizina californica (W. Phillips) Harmaja, but the molecular study of Methven(4) nests it among Gyromitra species.
Microscopic:
spores (14)16.1-20.3 x (7.5)8.4-10.7 microns, elliptic, smooth, colorless, with 2 droplets, without apiculi; asci 160-200 x 10-12 microns; paraphyses 6-8 microns wide at tip, clavate, brown in mass, (Abbott), 13-19 x 7-10 microns, elliptic, smooth, ends often apiculate at maturity [sic], with small oil droplets, (Arora)
Notes:
Collections were examined from BC, WA, OR, ID, CA, and it has been reported from CO, MT, NV, (Abbott).
EDIBILITY
suspected of causing poisoning (Benjamin(1))
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Gyromitra sphaerospora has round spores, (Abbott). Gyromitra melaleucoides has upper surface that is similar in color but the cap is disc-shaped to broadly bowl-shaped or minimally recurved, and the stem, when present, is not composed of sharp-edges ribs; "in addition, the spores are ornamented instead of smooth", (Castellano).Habitat
single to gregarious "on soil, duff, or woody debris, rarely on rotted logs, in coniferous woods", "from April 24 in BC to August 6 in ID and interior BC, June and July collections are common", (Abbott), on or adjacent to well rotted stumps or logs of coniferous trees or on soil rich in brown rotted wood, (Castellano), single, scattered, or gregarious "in woods and at their edges, along streams, or often in somewhat disturbed soil", mainly late spring and summer, but sometimes in fall or even winter, (Arora)