Helvella atra

[ Ascomycetes > Pezizales > Helvellaceae > Helvella . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

I love the genus Helvella. Maybe my experience with the closely related morels and false morels predisposes me, but I get excited every time I see a Helvella--even if it's only in the form of a picture. Sadly, that's the closest I've ever been to Helvella atra, and contributor Dianna Smith's photo of this awesome species makes me want to roll around on the ground with the little mushrooms, take them home, look at them under the microscope . . .

Yeah, I'm a little odd. But so is Helvella atra. It has a black cap that usually manages to gather itself into two or three lobes, a brownish to grayish or blackish stem that is finely fuzzy but not ribbed and pocketed (like the stem of Helvella lacunosa), and a cap margin that is not strongly rolled upwards like the margin of the very similar Helvella pezizoides.

I do not recommend any species of Helvella for the table.

Description:

Ecology: Officially saprobic, but I would guess that it has the potential to be mycorrhizal as well; growing alone or gregariously under hardwoods or conifers; summer and fall; apparently widely distributed in North America (recorded from montane and boreal regions as well as eastern, southern, and southwestern areas).

Cap: 1-3 cm; loosely lobed or saddle-shaped, often forming two or three distinct lobes; smooth or somewhat wrinkled; dark brownish gray to black; the margin not typically rolled upwards; undersurface very finely fuzzy, grayish to grayish brown.

Flesh: Thin; brittle.

Stem: 1-3 cm long; to .5 cm thick; dark gray or grayish brown; finely fuzzy.

Microscopic Features: Spores: 15-21 x 10-13 µ; elliptical; with one oil droplet; smooth.

REFERENCES: Fries, 1823. (Weber, 1972; Arora, 1986; Abbott & Currah, 1997; Roody, 2003.) I have not collected this mushroom.

Helvella subglabra, originally described as a dark gray or brownish gray (as opposed to black) species, has been synonymized with Helvella atra by Abbott & Currah (1997).

Further Online Information:

Helvella atra at Fungi of Poland

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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2005, February). Helvella atra. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/helvella_atra.html