Helvella maculata

Helvella maculata

Helvella maculata is a western species that features an elaborately ribbed and pocketed stem, a brownish cap that is loosely lobed, and a fuzzy, whitish undersurface. It appears under conifers and hardwoods from Alaska to California--usually in fall, but also over winter or in spring in coastal areas.
Elfin saddle Fall,Geotagged,Helvella maculata,United States

Appearance

Cap: 1-6 cm; vaguely saddle-shaped or irregularly lobed; at first strongly inrolled; slightly wavy or wrinkled; upper surface brown, sometimes mottled with whitish areas; undersurface whitish at first, becoming dull yellow with age, densely fuzzy, occasionally with a few ribs extended from the stem; the margin not usually fusing with the stem where contact occurs.

Flesh: Thin; brittle; often chambered in the stem.

Stem: 2-12 cm long; up to 3 cm wide; whitish, with brownish areas; deeply and ornately ribbed, with cross-veins and pockets.

Microscopic Features: Spores 18-23 x 11-14 µ; elliptical; smooth; with one large oil droplet. Paraphyses with subclavate to clavate apices; 5-9 µ wide; hyaline to brownish. Excipular surface elements hyaline; often arranged in bundles; frequently septate; terminal cells subglobose to barrel-shaped.
Helvella maculata I think these may be H. maculata either H. maculata or a very light variation of H. vespertina. I don't see any attachments of the cap to the stem, which would indicate maculata, but it is difficult to tell whether the underside of the cap is fuzzy or not, as these are young mushrooms and the caps are still rolled inwards. Helvella maculata

Distribution

Alaska to California

Habitat

under conifers and hardwoods

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

under conifers and hardwoods
Taxonomy
KingdomFungi
DivisionAscomycota
ClassPezizomycetes
OrderPezizales
FamilyHelvellaceae
GenusHelvella
SpeciesHelvella maculata
Photographed in
United States of America