Helvella elastica

Saddle-shaped Helvella with a smooth stipe.

Ectal excipulum of textura globulosa-angularis, with terminal elements on the outer surface arranged in a palisade, short-septate, with swellings in the terminal cell, thin-walled and with faint brownish intracellular pigment inside.

Asci cylindrical, 8-spored, uniseriate, operculate, up to 340 µm long and up to 12 µm wide, inamyloid in Melzer's reagent.

Paraphyses cylindrical, filiform, smooth, unbranched, septate, slightly swollen at the apex, with brownish intracellular pigment inside.

Ascospores ellipsoidal, smooth, hyaline, thin-walled, with a large central oil droplet and smaller polar guttules.

Within the Helvella elastica group, molecular data continue to reveal new taxa, such as Helvella carnosa; therefore, pending sequencing, it is more prudent to consider it Helvella elastica s.l.