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Species Information
Summary: Also listed in Morels etc. category. Gyromitra olympiana is similar in shape to Gyromitra ancilis. Features include a fruitbody that is shallowly cup-shaped to disc-shaped or reflexed; upper surface that is yellow-brown to brown or red-brown when old, sometimes with olive tints; cream to pallid underside; stem lacking to rudimentary; growth on soil or duff in spring, often near melting snowbanks; and microscopic characters.
Collections were examined from BC, WA, OR, AB, UT, and WY, and reported from eastern North America, (Abbott). It has been recorded from WA, ID, CA, UT, and WY, (Larsen).
Upper surface: 0.9-5cm across, 1-1.5cm high, (up to 5.4cm x 2.5cm fresh), deeply to shallowly cup-shaped to disc-shaped or reflexed, margin inrolled at first and rarely splitting when old; spore-bearing upper surface "(fresh) pale to dark yellow brown to brown or red brown in age, sometimes with olivaceous tints, dark brown when dried"; smooth to undulate-rugose [wavy-wrinkled], (Abbot), 1.5-3cm across, flat with edge rolled under; "tawny olive" when fresh, drying blackish brown, (Kanouse)
Flesh: leathery (Abbot), thick, soft, (Kanouse)
Underside: cream to pallid brown; bald to pubescent [finely downy], (Abbot)
Stem: lacking to rudimentary, up to 0.4cm x 0.4cm (2cm x 2cm fresh), solid, flaring and merging with cup; cream to whitish brown; "smooth or slightly fluted, finely pubescent", (Abbot), 0.2-0.3cm long, 0.2-0.3cm wide, wrinkled when dry, gradually expanded into the cup; cream to flesh-colored, (Kanouse)
Microscopic: spores (24.4)27.2-39.8(40.7) x (10.7)12.0-17.6(19.5) microns, elliptic to subfusoid or fusoid [nearly spindle-shaped or spindle-shaped], finely roughened, colorless, apiculi virtually absent or broadly rounded thickenings, sometimes distinct broad truncate knobs, with 1 droplet or less often 3 droplets, (with large round central droplet and 0-3 smaller round polar droplets); asci 16.7-26.6 microns wide; paraphyses 5.6-13.1 microns wide at tip, terminal cell 84-218 microns long, clavate to irregularly lobed, gradually enlarged or abruptly swollen at tip, sometimes bent or branched at tip, when present branches bifurcate at tip or paraphyses with knob-like branch bud below primary tip, yellow brown, brown in mass, contents coarsely granular, (Abbott), spores 30-32(36) x 12-14(16) microns, "subtrihedrate (like beech nuts), in one view truly ellipsoid, in another broadly fusoid to diamond-shaped", smooth, thick-walled, sometimes thickened at ends to form small flat apiculi, containing one large highly refractive oil-droplet, often also 2 smaller oil droplets, uniseriate; asci 8-spored, 275-300 x 20-22 microns in the spore-bearing part, cylindric, narrowing in lower part into long slender stem that readily collapses; paraphyses 7-9 microns at tips, stout, bunched together in fascicles, brown; hypothecium pseudoprosenchymatic, (Kanouse), spores 28-36 x 13-16 microns, with inconspicuously ornamented tips, (Trudell)
Habitat / Range
single, gregarious or scattered on soil or duff in coniferous forests or mixed woods, in spring, frequently near melting snow, (Abbot)
Similar Species
Gyromitra ancilis is larger and has different spores that are narrowly fusoid and with prominent apiculi, whereas those of G. olympiana strongly three-sided (in one view narrow and in another almost diamond-shaped), (Kanouse, discussing Discina perlata and Discina olympiana). Some spores of Gyromitra ancilis have prominent pointed apiculi at both ends. Some spores of Gyromitra leucoxantha have concave apiculi at maturity. Spores of Gyromitra melaleucoides are smaller and lack apiculi. 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.).
