Elfin Saddle

Description

The elfin saddle has neither gills nor tubes. Its cap, usually 2–7 cm across, consists of several irregularly bent lobes, grey to black, and looks like a saddle or a bent cap. The stem is 3–15 cm long, grey, hollow inside, longitudinally ribbed and covered with deep pits; the flesh is thin and brittle.

It grows on the ground, most often in light deciduous woods, less often coniferous, and also in thickets, clearings and on burnt ground. Fruiting bodies appear from May to November, singly or in small groups. In Poland it is a rare species.

It is told apart from similar saddle fungi by the combination of grey to black colour, a wavy cap and a ribbed, pitted stem. Identification among several similar species can be difficult. This is not a mushroom for eating.

Identification features

Cap

Diameter 1–10 cm (usually 2–7 cm), height 2–5 cm. Saddle-shaped cap made up of 2–3 irregularly bent, wavy lobes, whose lower margin is sometimes attached to the stipe. Outer surface smooth, bare, ash-grey, grey, bluish-grey to grey-black, often with brownish tints, frequently almost black; the inner surface is also smooth, from grey to sooty grey. Rare forms with a whitish cap occur. The fruiting body can look waxy.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

No gills or tubes; the hymenium (spore-bearing layer) covers the upper surface of the cap lobes and is smooth. According to some descriptions the underside of the cap is smooth, according to others finely downy.

Stem

Height 3–15 cm, thickness 1–3 cm. Narrowly club-shaped to cylindrical, hollow and chambered inside, with longitudinal ribs and often deep pits. Surface smooth, without a ring; colour from whitish in young fruiting bodies, through grey and grey-brown, to blackish in older ones.

Flesh

Thin, brittle, whitish or greyish. Taste and smell indistinct. The flesh should not be tasted.

Spore print and spores

Spore print white. Spores elliptical (oval), smooth, hyaline, with one large oil droplet, 12–22 × 9–14 µm (descriptions give different ranges).

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Probably a mycorrhizal fungus. Grows on the ground in forests, most often in light deciduous woods, less often coniferous (under pines, oaks, Douglas fir), also in thickets, clearings, parks and lawns, on wood storage yards and on burnt ground. It is parasitised by Hypomyces cervinigenus and by the mycelium of the funnel cap Clitocybe sclerotoidea.

Distribution. Widespread in the Northern Hemisphere: Europe, North America (especially the east, and California and the western mountains), Asia (including Japan, China, Sikkim). Many localities have been reported in Poland, but the species is listed on the 2006 Red List as rare (R), potentially threatened because of its limited range and small habitat areas. It is not legally protected in Poland.

Fruiting. In Poland from May to November, singly or in small groups; in North America mainly late summer and autumn, and in California also recorded in winter.

What can it be confused with?

• Helvella atra (black elfin saddle) — Smaller, with a grey stipe and a smoky-brown cap.
• Helvella ephippium — Smaller, greyish or brown.
• Helvella crispa (white saddle) — The whitish form of H. lacunosa differs from the creamy-white H. crispa in that the latter has a hairy underside of the cap and an inrolled margin in young fruiting bodies.
• Helvella maculata — Cap brownish.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• The species name lacunosa means "with holes" in Latin and refers to the pitted stem.
• The species is sometimes parasitised by the fungi Hypomyces cervinigenus and Clitocybe sclerotoidea.
• It often grows on burnt ground, which is why it is counted among the fire-site fungi.