Helvella crassitunicata N.S. Weber
no common name
Helvellaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
no common name
Helvellaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Photograph
Species Information
Summary:
Also listed in Cups category. Features include a cup-shaped fruitbody with medium to dark brown upper surface; medium to dark brown external surface that is densely downy; medium brown to pallid densely downy stem with rounded ribs that extend onto the basal half of the underside of the cap; and microscopic characters including large spores and thick-walled paraphyses with a long terminal cell in addition to the normal thin-walled ones for the genus.
Microscopic:
spores 22.7-27.6 x 12.6-14.6 microns, broadly elliptic or elliptic to subcylindric, smooth, colorless, with one droplet; asci 350-400 x 17-20 microns, aporhynchous; paraphyses 5.4-8.8 microns wide at tip, of two forms, "most thin-walled, terminal cell in some becoming elongated and thick-walled, clavate, expanding gradually to apex, often slightly irregular, terminal of thin-walled paraphyses 67-94 microns long, terminal cell of thick-walled paraphyses 235-300 microns long, pale brown to brown, contents finely granular, walls of thick-walled paraphyses pigmented", (Abbott), spores 23-28(30) x 13-15 microns, elliptic, smooth; asci 8-spored, inamyloid, with single basal scar; paraphyses "straight, narrowly clavate, by maturity at least some with distinctly thickened walls", (Castellano), spores 23-26(28) x 13.5-15 microns, oblong to obscurely ovate, smooth, colorless, with a large central droplet; asci 8-spored, 300-360 x 18-23 microns, aporhynchous [beak suppressed or absent]; paraphyses narrowly clavate, 3-3.5 microns wide at base, clava 5-8 microns, upper 1/3 to 1/2 light yellowish brown in KOH, branching in the lower half one or more times, often anastomosing, walls in the upper third to half often thickening when old or near the margin to 1-1.5 microns, refractive, brownish, tips remaining thin, (Weber)
Notes:
Collections were examined from BC, WA, and AK, but it is rare and endemic, (Abbott). It is found in WA and OR, (Castellano).
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Helvella leucomelaena has a different color, weaker pubescence of the underside and stem, and less pronounced ribbing of the stem and underside, (Abbott). H. leucomelaena fruits from winter to early summer and differs microscopically, (Arora).Habitat
single, gregarious, or subcespitose [somewhat tufted] on soil under conifers, May to October, (Abbott), scattered to gregarious on soil, especially along trails, in montane regions with Abies spp. (fir), August to October, (Castellano), gregarious to scattered under conifers on bare soil, often along trails, later summer and fall, (Weber)
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Boletellus turbinatus (Snell) Singer
Boletus turbinatus Snell
Gelatinodiscus flavidus Kanouse & A.H. Sm.