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Hello, dear friends. I've got an interesting Helvella here. First I thought, this should be H. elastica, but it's cap seems to be quite regular and outer surface is velvety. Inner cap surface is smooth, though.It was found in a wet place in mixed forest, near oak trees.
The spores are quite large, about 25-28*14-16 mkm. The ascos 350-410*20-25 mkm. The paraphyses enlargened up to 7-8 mkm at the tips.
The last three micro pictures is the tissue of the inner, whitish part of the cap.
Do you think, that the spore measures are within a normal range for that species?
As I've seen, that Helvella albella spores are about 20-24*12-14 in "Ascomycete Fungi of North America: A Mushroom Reference Guide" By Michael Beug, Alan E. Bessette, Arleen R. Bessette
Hi Olga,
first, it is not H. elastica; H. albella is a good idea as Nicolas said, however the spore size seem too large for every species in this group. Quèlet described H. albella with spores 18-20 µm.
And pay attention, it is complicated to compare our collections with American ones, it may exist more taxa that we can think.
We have made several collections with the same habitus of your specimens, but with smaller spores, mostly 19-23 µm long, more frequent in mediterranean habitat, but always under oaks as your specimens. So, forgive me if I ask this, check the measurements one more time.
An then, it would be nice to know where and when this was collected.
Regards
Mario
as you know, I love to call these collections Helvella panormitana ;)
Thank you, Mario.
They were collected this Saturday, in a mixed forest near Jerusalem, Israel.
If someone is interested in this samples, I still have them in my fridge. I'll be glad to dry them and send for proper check, as, indeed, I think, in Israel this species was not registered yet. I don't know local mycologists,, who would work on Ascomycetes research currently.
I was already told, that the spores are to big and checked the measures again, but the average numbers are still the same, I think. My microscope in not a professional one, so may be my check is somewhere not exact or wrong, as I measure the length of the picture on the screen in milimeters and then do a calculation to micrometers according to the magnification numbers.
Well Olga, if from Israel then I think Carlo is right :)
I would be very interested to examine the collection. I send you a mail with my address.
I don't think it's a microscope problem, if the other measurements you take are "normal".
Thank you
Mario
Hi,
the mail was sent yesterday morning, however I retry on both adresses (maybe you better delete the addresses from here where every spammer can read)...
Regards
Mario