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Species Information
Summary: Also listed in Cups category. Features include a dark brown to gray-brown upper surface, finely downy underside, white stem with well separated blunt ribs that do not extend beyond the lower quarter of the underside, fruiting from spring to early summer, and microscopic characters including relatively large spores and aporhynchous asci.
Collections were examined from BC, WA, OR, ID, and also AB, NF, ON, PQ, AK, WY, Argentina, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Italy, Australia, reported from north Africa, Middle East, and Asia, (Abbott). It is quite common in the Rocky Mountains in late spring - collections were examined from OR, ID, CA, CO, UT, WY, (Weber). It also occurs in Switzerland (Breitenbach).
Cap: 0.4-6cm across, 0.3-3.4cm high (up to 7cm across fresh), deeply cup-shaped, at first almost spherical and nearly closed, margin expanding when mature to shallowly cup-shaped, "often becoming split and somewhat reflexed, occasionally laterally compressed when immature, cups rarely irregular and repand when growing in clusters"; spore-bearing surface "dark brown to gray-brown when fresh, rarely with paler areas, when dry dark brown to blackish brown", smooth to slightly undulate-rugose [wavy-wrinkled], (Abbott), fruitbody 1-4cm wide, 1-3(4)cm tall, cup-shaped, "expanded and flat and split at the margin only in age"; spore-bearing surface dark gray-brown to black-brown, smooth, (Breitenbach), fruitbody (1)2-5(7)cm across and high, cup-shaped or bowl-shaped, interior of cup dark gray to dark brown, dark grayish brown, or blackish; smooth; the margin often finely scalloped, lobed, or split, especially when old, (Arora), margin prolonged beyond the hymenium (Weber)
Flesh: thin, rather brittle, (Arora)
Underside: brown to dark brown at margin, pallid brown in lower part, white near base; "pubescent, ribs absent or extending onto basal quarter only", (Abbott), dark gray-brown to black-brown, the same color as upper surface, fading in embedded individuals to whitish toward the stem; ribs from stem scarcely continuing onto the cup or doing so only for a short distance, (Breitenbach), in upper part colored like upper surface, shading to white or cream in lower part; minutely roughened, not ribbed or only ribbed basally, (Arora)
Stem: 0.1-2cm x 0.1-1.5cm, "internally sulcate and solid or chambered", widening in upper part and merging with cup, in lower part equal or base rarely slightly enlarged; white; "finely pubescent, sparingly ribbed, ribs broad and rounded", (Abbott), short and stout, embedded in ground, longitudinally folded into ribs, lighter gray-brown than upper surface on the above-ground parts; finely downy, (Breitenbach), 0.5-2(4)cm x 0.5-1.5(3)cm at top, often buried till maturity, "with distinct, broad, low, rounded, whitish ribs" ending at base of cup, short and stout to practically absent (in the latter case the base of the bowl appears gathered); usually white but at times dingy grayish; channeled in cross-section, (Arora)
Microscopic: spores 18-24.2 x 10.9-15 microns, broadly elliptic to elliptic, smooth, colorless, one droplet; asci 225-330 x 14.6-20 microns, aporhynchous; paraphyses 4.9-9 microns wide at tip, end cell 144-145 microns long, clavate, enlarged gradually to abruptly at tip, "pale brown to brown, contents finely granular", (Abbott), spores 18-23 x 10-14 microns, broadly elliptic, smooth, colorless, with one droplet, sometimes with additional small droplets in the ends; asci 8-spored, 250-300 x 13-16 microns, not turning blue in iodine; paraphyses cylindric, thickened toward tips to 8 microns, septate towards base, (Breitenbach), spores 20-23(25) x 10.5-14 microns, (Weber)
Habitat / Range
single, gregarious, subcespitose [somewhat tufted], or scattered and numerous on bare soil, moss, or litter in coniferous woods, April to September, (Abbott), gregarious in forests and meadows, commonly on pathsides and roadsides, in stony, sandy, humus-poor places, April to June, (Breitenbach), scattered to densely gregarious or clustered, occasionally single, on ground, usually near or under pine or other conifers, favoring bare, grassy or hard-packed soil along roads and paths; in spring and early summer, or in California in winter and early spring, (Arora)
Similar Species
Helvella crassitunicata has a different color, stronger pubescence of the underside and stem, and more pronounced ribbing of stem and underside, (Abbott). H. crassitunicata usually fruits in late summer and fall and differs microscopically, (Arora). H. crassitunicata fruits in the fall, has larger spores, and has peculiarly thickened paraphyses that almost resemble setae, (Weber). Helvella solitaria has pleurorhynchous asci and smaller spores, (Abbott). H. solitaria has a more distinct stem, usually develops above the ground, and differs microscopically, (Arora). Helvella acetabulum has "usually larger and paler tan cups with more pronounced ribs extending upward to near the cup margin" (Trudell).
