Helvella  

Anamorph: not known.
Teleomorph: stromata absent. Ascomata discomycetous, large (often to 10-15 cm tall) and usually strongly stipitate. Hymenium white or cream to grey, dark brown or black, usually covering the entire cap which is cupulate, saddle-shaped or mitre-like, and often irregularly lobed. Outer (undersurface) of cap white to pale or dark grey, glabrous to pubescent or distinctly hairy, the outer surface layer often composed of chains of angular hyaline cells, the outermost cells cylindrical to clavate. Internal tissue (below the hymenium) composed of interwoven hyphae. Stipe squat to elongate, sometimes expanded at the base, round, often grooved, ribbed or strongly furrowed, the ribs sometimes extending underneath the cap; solid or hollow, white to dark grey, glabrous or hairy. Interascal tissue of unbranched paraphyses with swollen apices, sometimes containing a brown pigment. Asci cylindrical, fairly thick-walled, short-stalked, with or without croziers, the apex rounded, operculate, 8-spored. Ascospores ellipsoidal to broadly ellipsoidal or ellipsoidal-fusiform, fairly thin-walled, hyaline, smooth, usually containing  a large central lipid droplet surrounded by smaller ones, without a gelatinous sheath or appendages.

For key see here.