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Saddles: The Genus Helvella  

[ Ascomycetes > Pezizales > Helvellaceae . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

The mushrooms in Helvella, sometimes called the "Elfin Saddles," have irregular caps that are smooth or "wavy" and are saddle-shaped, lobed, or cuplike. The caps are not brightly colored, and are usually white, cream, buff, brown, gray, black, or tan. Helvella species grow on the ground or on rotting wood. Most species fruit in summer and fall, but several can be found in the winter and spring in warm coastal areas.

 		 

Helvella crispa

Helvella elastica


Key to 15 Saddle-like and Lobed (Noncupulate) Taxa of Helvella in North America  


1.Cap cuplike; with or without a stem. (Not treated below; eventually the cuplike species of Helvella will be treated in a key to the cup fungi. See the pages for Helvella macropus, Helvella corium, Helvella acetabulum, and Helvella queletii.)

1.Cap not cuplike.
2


2.Cap dark brown or reddish brown or purplish red, 2- to 3-lobed; growing on wood (or, rarely, terrestrially, especially in the West); stem smooth or broadly wrinkled; undersurface of cap not hairy; spores with two oil droplets.

2.Not completely as above.
3


3.Cap brown, cushion-shaped; growing on wood; stem ribbed, with pink to purplish shades.

3.Not completely as above.
4


4.Stem with sharply defined ribs.
5

4.Stem smooth, wrinkled, broadly grooved once, or with a few folds at its base--but without sharply defined ribs.
11


5.Cap white or whitish. (See also a form of Helvella sulcata.)
6

5.Cap brown, gray, or black.
7


6.Cap edges becoming intergrown with the stem by maturity; undersurface of cap under a hand lens smooth or nearly so.

6.Cap edges never becoming intergrown with the stem; undersurface of cap under a hand lens finely hairy or fuzzy.


7.Cap brown; undersurface of cap densely hairy.

7.Cap gray to black; undersurface smooth or nearly so. (Helvella lacunosa in the wide sense--or in the strict sense, according to some authors who treat the subsequent species as varieties.)
8


8.Cap more or less convex or cushion-shaped.
Helvella phlebophora
(photo only)
at Gruppo Micologico

8.Cap saddle-shaped, lobed, or irregular.
9


9.Cap saddle-shaped or 3-lobed; undersurface of cap without ribs or wrinkles; growing on rotting wood (rarely terrestrially) in upland woods.
Helvella sulcata
(photo only)
at U. du Havre

9.Cap variously shaped; undersurface of cap with ribs or wrinkles; growing in wet areas (bogs, among damp mosses, and so on) or on disturbed ground (roadbanks, landscaped areas, ditches, and the like).
10


10.Stem small (to 6 cm long and 1 cm thick), with blunt ribs that do not form holes and pockets; cap nearly always loosely saddle-shaped.

10.Stem substantially larger than above, with sharp-edged ribs that form holes and pockets; cap ranging from saddle-shaped to irregularly lobed and folded.


11.Cap and stem black or nearly so.
12

11.Cap and stem variously colored, but not both black.
13


12.Undersurface of cap densely hairy or fuzzy; cap margin strongly inrolled when young and remaining somewhat inrolled through maturity.

12.Undersurface of cap smooth or very finely fuzzy; cap margin not usually strongly inrolled.


13.Cap margin never rolled upwards; undersurface of cap smooth or nearly so; stem hollow.

13.Cap margin usually strongly rolled upwards when young (and sometimes in maturity); undersurface of cap fuzzy or hairy, at least when young; stem hollow or not.
14


14.Mushroom quite small at maturity (cap no wider than 2 cm, stem no thicker than .5 cm); stem brownish or grayish; undersurface of cap densely hairy.
Helvella ephippium
(photo only)
at Fungi Memo

14.Mushroom larger than above at maturity; stem whitish; undersurface finely fuzzy, or smooth by maturity.
15


15.Cap black; stem white; fruiting in winter and spring in California, under Narrowleaf Cottonwood.
"Helvella leucopus"
sensu Arora

15.Not completely as above.
16


16.Cap medium brown to dark brown; undersurface of cap densely and conspicuously hairy; found primarily in the Pacific Northwest and on the West Coast, fruiting from March to December.

16.Cap variously colored; undersurface of cap finely fuzzy or nearly smooth; variously distributed.
17


17.Cap pale brown to medium brown; fruiting from early summer through fall in eastern North America and in the Canadian Rockies; spores 16-21 µ long.
Helvella latispora
= H. stevensii

17.Cap medium brown to dark brown; fruiting in late summer and fall across North America; spores 18-24 µ long.
Helvella albella
(photo only)
at Gruppo Micologico



Note: Cudonia circinans looks a lot like a species of Helvella until microscopic analysis reveals its amazing, needle-like spores.


References

Abbott, S. O. & Currah, R. S. (1997). The Helvellaceae: Systematic revision and occurrence in northern and northwestern North America. Mycotaxon 62: 1-125.

Arora, D. (1986). Mushrooms demystified: A comprehensive guide to the fleshy fungi. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. 959 pp.

Batra, L. R. (1976). Helvella and Gyromitra (Pezizales: Operculatae) in the southern Appalachians. In B. C. Parker & M. K. Roane, eds. Distributional history of the biota of the southern Appalachians. Part IV. Algae & fungi: biogeography, systematics and ecology. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia. 145-204.

Dissing, H. & Lange, M. (1967). Notes on the genus Helvella in North America. Mycologia 59: 349-360.

Kanouse, B. B. (1946). Some studies in the genus Helvella. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters 32: 83-90.

Treibs, H. A. (2001). Trial key to Helvellaceae in the Pacific Northwest. Retrieved January 22, 2005 from the Pacific Northwest Key Council Web site: http://www.svims.ca/council/Helvel.htm

Weber, N. S, (1972). The genus Helvella in Michigan. The Michigan Botanist 11: 147-201.

Weber, N. S, (1975). Notes on western species of Helvella. I. Beihefte Nova Hedwigia 51: 25-38.



Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2005, January). Saddles: The genus Helvella. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/helvella.html


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