Gyromitra ancilis (Pers.) Kreisel
pig's ears
Discinaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
pig's ears
Discinaceae
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 fruitbody that is cup-shaped to saucer-shaped or with a down-turned margin, usually wrinkled or veined or convoluted; the upper surface some shade of brown; the underside paler or whitish and sometimes ribbed in lower part; the stem usually present as a short thick gathered base with ribs or pits; brittle flesh; growth in spring on wood or sometimes on the ground; and microscopic characters including spores with a pointed projection from each end. The online Species Fungorum, accessed March 9, 2012, gives the current name as Discina ancilis (Pers.) Sacc., Syll. fung. (Abellini) 8: 103 (1889).
Odor:
none (Breitenbach)
Microscopic:
spores 25-35 x (8)11-16 microns, "spindle-shaped with an apiculus (knob or short projection) at each end, smooth or becoming minutely roughened at maturity, with one large central oil droplet and two or more smaller ones at the ends", (Arora), spores 27.6-45.6 x 11.6-16.1 microns, subfusoid to fusoid, nearly smooth to distinctly roughened when mature, apiculi well developed, pointed, and 1.7-5.4 microns long, some spores rarely non-apiculate, spores with one to three droplets, large central droplet round to broadly elliptic, with one or two small round polar droplets; asci 350-375 x 17.0-25.0 microns; paraphyses 5.1-10.7 microns wide at tip, terminal cell 64-103 microns long, "clavate, gradually enlarged to abruptly swollen, brown individually, dark brown in mass, contents coarsely granular", (Abbott), spores 24-30 x 13-14 microns without appendages, finely warty, when mature finely reticulate and with 3 oil droplets and a pointed colorless appendage of 3-6 microns on each end; asci 8-spored, 300-350 x 17 microns, negative reaction to iodine; paraphyses cylindric, slightly clavate, tips 7-10 microns wide, with brownish contents, septate, (Breitenbach), spores 25-45 x 8-16 microns (Trudell)
Notes:
It is found at least in BC, WA, OR, ID, and also AB, MB, SK, AK, WY, eastern North America, and Europe including Czechoslovakia, (Abbott). Distribution includes also CA, CO, MT, and UT, (Larsen).
EDIBILITY
not recommended: some eat it but care must be taken to cook it thoroughly and identify it correctly, (Arora)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Disciotis venosa is more cup-like and more veined, sometimes has a chlorine odor, and has smooth spores without large oil droplets (but sometimes small droplets at ends outside the spore wall). Discina leucoxantha is yellowish, has somewhat different spores, and is found under both hardwoods and conifers, (Arora). D. leucoxantha has a bright yellow brown to orange brown fresh upper surface and the spore apiculi are depressed (concave-truncate, each appearing as if there are two points instead of one), (Abbott). Gyromitra melaleucoides has a somewhat waxy-looking underside when moist, a sometimes slightly longer narrower stem, and much shorter non-apiculate spores, (Arora). Gyromitra olympiana is smaller, with different spores (strongly three-sided, in one view narrow and in another almost diamond-shaped), whereas spores of G. ancilis are narrowly fusoid and have prominent apiculi, (Kanouse(6) discussing Discina olympiana and Discina perlata). Some spores of Gyromitra olympiana have a broad blunt thickening at both ends. Spores of Gyromitra ancilis, Gyromitra olympiana, Gyromitra leucoxantha, and Gyromitra melaleucoides should be mature spores from a spore deposit when comparison is made (Michael Beug, pers. comm.)Habitat
single to gregarious or clustered, "on ground or around old stumps or occasionally on rotten wood in forests", mainly in spring or early summer under conifers, a characteristic snowbank fungus, (Arora), single, gregarious or subcespitose and numerous, scattered on soil, litter, or woody debris, less often on rotted wood or burnt debris, under conifers or rarely under hardwoods or in mixed woods, March to July, (Abbott), single to gregarious, on rotting wood, especially conifer stumps, buried remains of wood, etc., (Breitenbach), "on wet soil or rotting wood in the mountains in spring", often as a snowbank fungus, (Trudell)
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Corticium calothrix Pat.
Peniophora calothrix (Pat.) D.P. Rogers & H.S. Jacks.
Thanatephorus ochraceus (Massee) P. Roberts
Uthatobasidium ochraceum (Massee) Donk