Habitat and Range
Gyromitra ambigua tends to be darker red-brown with stronger violaceous tints, and has apiculate spores that are subfusoidal and 21-30 microns long, (Abbott). G. ambigua 1) has a more or less distinct violet tinge, especially when fresh, 2) the fruitbody is smaller on average, 3) the cap usually darker (even black when dry, brownish hoary when dry from discharged spores rather than whitish), 4) the hymenium is more often wrinkled (it is smooth when young and sometimes later too but with age it often becomes irregularly wrinkled), 5) the seam at the outer side of the lobes of the cap seems to be less prominent and tighter, 6) habitat favors pines (perhaps always associated at least in Europe) and poor sandy soil whereas G. infula occurs on less poor sites, especially near Picea and often in decaying wood, 7) distribution is more northern and favors higher altitudes, 8) fruiting season is on the average some weeks earlier where both occur, 9) most importantly, since "the macroscopic features alone very often do not permit a positive identification", the spores are different - the spores of G. ambigua "are longer (even without the perispore), broader, the true spore apex is narrower and the spores thus more clearly fusiform, and the perispore is more inflated at the spore apices", 10) the paraphyses enlarge more gradually to the apex, "which is somewhat narrower on the average". (Harmaja(6)). Gyromitra esculenta fruits in spring, has a large convoluted head that is medium to dark red brown or oRANGE brown, and spore size and apiculation are different, (Abbott). Helvellas with non-fluted stems usually have more slender stems, and the color of the cap generally different, (Arora). See also SIMILAR section of Gyromitra columbiana.single, gregarious, subcespitose [somewhat tufted], or scattered on ground or more often on rotted coniferous wood or hardwood in coniferous or mixed woods, rarely in hardwood woods, from July 15 to Feb 17 in BC, with the majority of collections in August, September, and October, (Abbott), single to scattered on humus and rotting wood or debris, (Phillips), in most locations fruits in late summer and fall, but in CA winter and early spring, (Arora), July to October in the east, November to April in the west, (Lincoff(2)), single or in groups near conifers (spruce almost always present) "from grass-herb rich forests to dry heath forests, very often in decaying wood" (mostly of Picea, rarely Pinus or Betula), otherwise especially on bare soil, "sometimes on burnt areas, very rarely even among charcoal", often where the ground has been disturbed, for example by roads and paths, mostly below 200m and not above 500m, from latter half of August to mid-November, (Harmaja(6) for Fennoscandia), also occurs before July in BC and WA