E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Summary:
{See also Elfin Saddle Table.} Features include 1) a saddle-shaped to trilobate or irregularly lobed, brown to gray brown, usually mottled cap that is free from the stem, 2) a cap underside that is finely hairy, and pale with grayish brown areas developing when old, 3) a white stem often with brownish mottling and with prominent ribs that may extend onto the basal third of the cap underside, and 4) microscopic characters.

Collections were examined from BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, MB, and AK, (Abbott), Collections were examined from CA, CO, ID, NM, OR, and UT, (Weber). It has also been reported from China, (Abbott).

Cap:
1-4.5cm wide, 0.5-2.6cm high, (up to 4cm across and 3cm high when fresh), irregularly lobed, margin strongly rolled inwards over upper surface at first, free from stem; "light to dark brown to gray brown (fresh and dried), sometimes mottled with patches of paler pigmentation"; undulate-rugose [wavy-wrinkled], (Abbott), 1.2-6cm wide and high, saddle-shaped or irregularly lobed when mature, the margin free from the stem and at first rolled up obscuring the upper surface, but unrolling or flaring out when old and sometimes splitting; brown to grayish brown or buffy brown, "often mottled with darker and lighter shades"; "smooth or slightly wrinkled", (Arora), 0.8-6cm across, 1.2-5cm high, saddle-shaped to trilobate, margin when young rolled over the spore-bearing surface and completely covering it, "gradually expanding and unrolling until at maturity it is flaring", often splitting when old, free of stem; spore-bearing surface mottled, shades of grayish brown, "buffy brown", "drab", or "snuff brown"; even to slightly rugose [wrinkled] especially over the top of the stem, (Weber)

Flesh:
thin, rather brittle, (Arora)

Underside:
ribs absent or extending onto basal third; "white or cream to pallid gray"; "densely pubescent to villose", (Abbott), creamy to yellowish, buff or grayish; minutely hairy, sometimes with a few ribs extending a little way up from the stem, (Arora), cream when young becoming lemon yellow with grayish or grayish brown areas when old, or "tilleul buff"; densely villose, even except for a few ribs extending short distances from top of stem or rarely ingrown with it, (Weber)

Stem:
1-12cm x 0.3-3cm, widening at base, highly ribbed, lacunose, internally chambered; "white, often with localized regions of brown to gray brown"; finely pubescent [downy], (Abbott), 2-10cm x 0.5-3cm, equal or widening downward, convoluted or chambered in cross-section, deeply ribbed and sometimes lacunose (pitted); "white to pale buff, sometimes with grayish or brownish stains" when old, (Arora), 1.5-10cm x 0.4-3cm, widening slightly downward, "costate, the ribs rounded, often single-edged, variously forking and anastomosing"; white to pale pinkish buff when young, when old becoming dark grayish brown in places especially on the ribs; "lacunose externally or in cross-section at some point in development", unpolished to finely pubescent under a hand lens, (Weber)

Microscopic:
spores 18-23.4 x 11-14 microns, broadly elliptic, smooth, colorless, with one oil droplet that is large, central, and broadly elliptic to nearly round; asci 268-300 x 15.2-19 microns; paraphyses 5.6-9 microns wide at tip, clavate, widened gradually to abruptly at tip, "brown, finely granular", (Abbott), spores (18)20-23 x 12-13.5 microns, bluntly elliptic or oblong, "smooth, with one central oil droplet", (Arora), spores 20-23 x 12-13.5 microns, rounded oblong to bluntly elliptic, smooth, with one large central droplet and often some small droplets at each end; asci 8-spored, 250-380 x 15-20 microns, pleurorhynchous [with a lateral beak or snout]; paraphyses colorless or with light ochraceous brown pigment in the upper cells (in water and KOH), clavate, clava 4.5-8 microns wide, base 3-3.5 microns wide, many anastomosing in lower part but no branching observed, (Weber)