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Species Information
Summary: Also listed in Cups category. Features include deep brown cups with a white to yellow-brown stem about half as tall as the cup, sharp ribs on the stem continuing at least a third of the way onto the cup and sometimes to the margin, fruiting in spring, and microscopic characters. It is possible that the Californian variation is a different species from the northern variation, and this is the reason for the group designation. ''acetabulum'' does not agree in its ending with ''Helvella'' because it is a noun rather than an adjective.
Collections were examined from BC, WA, OR, ID, and also AB, MB, ON, WY, Great Britain, Netherlands, France, and Scandinavia, and it has been reported from Asia, (Abbott). It has also been recorded from AZ, CO, and UT, (Larsen), CA (Arora).
Cap: 1-8cm across, 0.5-2cm high, deeply cup-shaped, margin expanding to slightly reflexed when old; "medium to dark brown (fresh and dried)"; smooth, (Abbott), 2-6cm across, fruitbody 2-7(10)cm high, shell-shaped to cup-shaped or goblet-shaped, irregularly undulating and expanded when old; spore-bearing surface gray-brown, chestnut-brown, or red-brown, "here and there with lilac tinges", smooth, (Breitenbach), 2-8cm across, up to 4cm deep, cup-shaped or bowl-shaped, margin even or irregularly split when old; spore-bearing surface "light to dark brown (or in one form tinged violet), smooth", (Arora), light yellowish brown to dark brown, sometimes with a tinge of violet, (McKnight)
Flesh: thin, rather brittle, (Arora), white (Phillips), wax-like, quite elastic in stem, (Lincoff(1))
Underside: "brown near margin, yellow brown to white at base", "pubescent to densely pubescent, prominently ribbed, with sharp, branching and anastomosing ribs extending to marginal region", (Abbott), colored as upper surface but becoming pale towards the stem; finely furfuraceous, ribs from the stem continue onto the cup often up to the margin, and branch to form veins, (Breitenbach), brown in upper part, paler (white or creamy) at base; smooth or minutely hairy; conspicuously ribbed with blunt or sharp-edged ribs that are branching, usually cream-colored, typically extending at least half way up cup and often nearly to margin, (Arora)
Stem: 0.3-4.5cm x 0.2-3cm, equal or narrowing toward base; white to light yellow-brown; "pubescent, highly ribbed", rarely lacunose [with holes], "ribs sharp or rarely blunt, branched and anastomosed, internally chambered", (Abbott), stem usually about half as tall as the cup, chambered internally and hollow, with raised, sharp-edged, white to ocher longitudinal ribs that continue onto the cup; smooth to slightly downy, (Breitenbach), sometimes absent but usually 1-5(9)cm x 0.5-3cm, stout, equal or widening in lower part, deeply ribbed, convoluted or chambered in cross-section; white or cream (or sometimes brown if very short), (Arora)
Odor: none in particular (Lincoff(1))
Taste: none in particular (Lincoff(1))
Microscopic: spores 16-20 x 11-13.7 microns, broadly elliptic, smooth, colorless, with 1 droplet; asci 260-330 x 16-18 microns, pleurorhynchous; paraphyses 4-6 microns wide at tip, clavate to nearly equal, enlarged gradually to tip, "pale brown, contents finely granular", (Abbott), spores 17.5-19(20.5) x 11.5-13.5 microns, broadly elliptic, smooth, colorless, with 1 droplet; asci 8-spored, 270-320 x 15-20 microns, not turning blue in iodine; paraphyses cylindric, septate and branched at base, tips with slight clavate thickenings to 6-8 microns, (Breitenbach), 16-20 x 11-14 microns, elliptic, smooth, with central oil droplet, (Arora)
Habitat / Range
single to gregarious on soil or litter in coniferous, mixed or hardwood woods, March to July, (Abbott), single to gregarious in hardwood and coniferous forests, in pastures, commonly on pathsides and roadsides, on sandy chalky soil, April to June, (Breitenbach), single to gregarious on ground in woods and at their edges, spring and summer, but in California may fruit in winter and early spring, (Arora), May to June (December to April in southwest), (Phillips)
Similar Species
Helvella costifera has been separated on the basis of color (H. costifera is grayer and the underside is not yellow brown), ribbing (H. costifera ribs are blunt and often more widely spaced, but rarely ribs on H. acetabulum are blunt), and fruiting time (H. costifera fruits later, but overlaps with later collections of H. acetabulum), (Abbott). Harmaja describes other similar species from Fennoscandia including two with small fruiting bodies and spores averaging larger that fruit from late July to August, (Harmaja(9)). See also SIMILAR section of Helvella leucomelaena.
poisonous (Phillips), sometimes reported as edible with caution, (McKnight), fair when cooked, especially after being boiled, poisonous raw, (Lincoff(1))
