Helvella macropus (Pers.: Fr.) P. Karst.
long-stalked gray cup
Helvellaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
long-stalked gray cup
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 Morels etc. category. Features include a cup-shaped fruiting body with a dark brown to gray upper surface; a light to medium brown or gray-brown, densely downy undersurface, sometimes with olivaceous tints; a light to medium gray-brown densely downy stem that is round in cross-section or fluted over its lower half; and microscopic characters including spindle-shaped spores each with three droplets.
Microscopic:
spores 18-25.1 x 10.3-12.2 microns, subfusoid, smooth to verruculose, colorless, with 3 droplets or infrequently with 1 droplet; asci 175-250 x 14-18 microns; paraphyses 5-9.6 microns at tip, clavate, enlarged gradually to abruptly at tip, "pale brown to brown in mass, contents finely granular", (Abbott), spores (19.5)20-27(31) x (9.5)10-12 microns, fusiform-elliptic, colorless, usually finely punctate, more rarely smooth, sometimes with coarse round warts when young, spores with one large and usually 1-2 smaller drops in each end; asci 8-spored, 220-350 x 15-20 microns, not turning blue in iodine; paraphyses cylindric and thickened on tips "to 9-12(7) microns" [sic]; with chains of oval cells projecting from exterior as hairs, (Breitenbach), spores (18)20-25 x 10-12.5 microns, "more or less spindle-shaped, finely roughened or smooth, with one large oil droplet and a smaller one at each end", (Arora), spores 20-30 x 10-12 microns (Phillips)
Notes:
Collections were examined from BC, WA, ID, and also AB, MB, ON, PQ, AK, MA, MI, NJ, NY, WI, and Japan, and it has been reported from southern North America, Central America, Caribbean, Europe, and Asia, (Abbott). It is also recorded from AZ and CO, (Larsen), and CA (Arora).
EDIBILITY
no (Phillips)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Helvella fibrosa (as H. chinensis) and Helvella cupuliformis have different color and spores (Abbott). H. fibrosa has a darker hymenium, (Korf(6)).Habitat
single to gregarious on litter or soil, infrequently on rotted wood, in hardwood, mixed, or coniferous woods, July to October, (Abbott), often single, sometimes in coniferous forests but primarily in hardwood forests, on bare ground or moss-covered places, July to October, (Breitenbach), single, scattered, or gregarious "on ground or rotten wood under both hardwoods and conifers", summer, winter, and spring, (Arora), June to November, (December to January on the west coast), (Phillips)
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Bourdotia cinerea (Bres.) Bourdot & Galzin
Hypochnopsis mustialaensis (P. Karst.) P. Karst.
Hypochnus mustialaensis P. Karst. [as H. mustialensis]
Sebacina cinerea Bres.