Helvella compressa (Snyder) N.S. Weber
compressed elfin saddle
Helvellaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
compressed elfin saddle
Helvellaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Species Information
Summary:
{See also Elfin Saddle Table.} Features include 1) a brown to dark brown or grayish brown cap that is saddle-shaped to somewhat irregularly lobed (2-3 lobes) typically with a well-developed cleft between lobes, but with the opposite margins rolled up over the fertile surface when young, 2) a cap underside that is whitish and minutely hairy, 3) a whitish stem that is round to somewhat flattened in cross-section, and usually solid, 4) growth on ground in spring, and 5) broadly elliptic spores with large central oil droplet.
Microscopic:
spores 19.7-23.8 x 11.4-14.8 microns, broadly elliptic, smooth, with large central round to broadly elliptic oil droplet; asci 280-349 x 15.2-22.0 microns, cylindric, tapered to base, colorless, pleurorhynchous; paraphyses 4.3-8.6 microns wide at tip, clavate, enlarged gradually to tip, "pale brown to brown in mass, contents finely granular", (Abbott), spores 19-22(25) x 12-15 microns, broadly elliptic, smooth, with large central oil droplet, (Arora); spores 19.5-21 x 12-14 microns, elliptic; asci 8-spored, inamyloid, thin-walled, (Castellano), spores 19.5-21 x 12-14 microns, rounded oblong to broadly elliptic, smooth, with a large central oil droplet as revived in water; asci 8-spored, (250)330-375 x 16-17.5 microns, pleurorhynchous [with a lateral beak or snout]; paraphyses clavate, clava 6-9 microns wide, 3-5 microns broad near the base, branching and anastomosing in lower half, colorless to pale brown in KOH, (Weber)
Notes:
Collections were examined from BC, WA, OR, ID, and AK, (Abbott), and CA (Castellano).
EDIBILITY
unknown (Arora)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Helvella latispora is lighter in the color of the upper surface, the underside is "finely pubescent to pubescent" rather than "densely pubescent to villose", and the RANGE of collections examined only overlaps in ID, H. latispora being the eastern species, (Abbott). Helvella albella has finely pubescent to pubescent cap underside, (as opposed to villose for H. compressa), (Abbott). Helvella elastica has the cap margin bent down (rather than inrolled upward initially), the stem is hollow, and the underside is bald, (Abbott).Habitat
single, gregarious, subcespitose [somewhat tufted], or scattered and numerous "on soil or litter, rarely with burnt woody debris, in coniferous or infrequently in mixed or deciduous woods", March 9 to December 25 in coastal WA, April to June collections common, (Abbott), single to gregarious "on ground in woods and at their edges, under trees, etc.", (Arora), on soil in low to mid-elevation, mixed woods often including Pseudotsuga menziesii or Quercus spp. and which may be subject to low levels of occasional disturbance, March through July, (Castellano), scattered to gregarious in duff under redwoods, oaks and various pines, in spring, (Weber)
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Myxarium subhyalinum (A. Pearson) D.A. Reid
Sebacina subhyalina A. Pearson