Gyromitra esculenta
Anamorph: no information available.
Teleomorph: ascomata stalked and convolute apothecia; 25-90 (-140) mm diam., 20-70 (-110) mm high, irregularly lobed, highly convoluted, the margin reflexed and fused to the stipe, rarely free when young. Hymenium medium to dark red-brown, sometimes orange-brown or with paler red to orange brown regions, dark red brown to blackish red brown when dry, undulate-rugose to convoluted-wrinkled, excipular surface white to pale yellow brown or pale red brown, finely pubescent. Stipe 15-100 x
20-60 mm, often enlarged the at base, cream to yellow-brown, sometimes with purple tints, glabrous, slightly to strongly fluted at the base or along the entire stipe, often terete when young, solid or with hollow chambers. Interascal tissue of usually unbranched paraphyses 4-5 µm diam. the apex clavate, gradually enlarged, pale brown, the contents granular, without a mucous coating. Asci 180-220 x 15-17 µm, cylindrical, long-stalked, the apex rounded to almost truncate, not blueing in iodine, operculate, 8-spored. Ascospores arranged uniseriately, 18-23 (-25) x 10-12.5 µm, ellipsoidal, hyaline, aseptate, thin-walled, smooth, biguttulate with two oil drops 2.5-4.5 µm diam., the apices not or hardly thickened, without an epispore or gelatinous sheath.
Not formally assessed, but the species is unlikely to be significantly threatened.
On soil and buried wood under Pinus sylvestris and other conifers, less frequently birch and other woody plants, usually on acid soils. Most indications are that the species is a saprotroph.
Common and widespread in northern Britain, less so in southern areas. It produces fruit bodies in the spring.