Hypomyces cervinigenus is the parasitic mold commonly seen on Helvella lacunosa. Normally greyish-black, the Elfin Saddle is transformed into a whitish to pinkish-buff mummy, the surface powdery from large numbers of asexually produced spores.
Similar species: Hypocreales
By morpheme
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Uploaded Oct 20, 2014. Captured Oct 19, 2014 17:18 in National Forest Develop Road 3745 Road, Washington, USA.
comments (5)
edit - batting almost a thousand on yesterday's fugi - I found that this is indeed another fungus parasitizing a helvella Posted 10 years ago, modified 10 years ago
A California Fungi web page (we have a lot in common with N. California) http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/index.html
and a the Pictoral Key to Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest Pictorial Key to Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest http://www.alpental.com/psms/PNWMushrooms/PictorialKey/index.htm
I usually try to find what looks like a good match on one of those, then look it up on the others and on the web in general to see different examples and whether or not it should occur in the area that I was in. If more than one site agrees, unless it is something that has a lot of look alikes, I usually feel assured enough to make an identification.
I do a lot of my first pass at identifying things by just doing a google image search - that usually leads me to more specific web sites where I can narrow down what exactly to look for. Posted 10 years ago, modified 10 years ago
http://www.jungledragon.com/species/guide
...which was the reason I asked :) Posted 10 years ago