Parasitic Clitocybe
This species features a most unusual occurrence of a basidiomycete parasitizing an ascomycete. It emerges in clusters, often with fused stipes, from a whitish mass that consists of the remains of Helvella vespertina and a sclerotium. The species typically appears in winter, and is decidedly uncommon. The caps are 2-4cm broad, often with a low umbo, dry, with margins entire and initially inrolled but later plane to convex or even uplifted. They are a dirty whitish color often with tan splotches of appressed fibrils, but smooth elsewhere. The gills are subdistant and gray brown, attached to subdecurrent. Short gills are usually 2-seried. The stipes are cream colored, solid, equal to somewhat clavate, up to 4-6cm in length and 4-8mm across. There is no veil. The apices are furfuraceous, with the bases fused and always arising from a sclerotium consisting of mixed Clitocyboid and Helvelloid tissue. The context is white and unchanging. There may be a noxious odor or none detectable and the taste is mild. The spore deposit is creamy yellowish. The species is inedible and possibly toxic. The fungus will likely soon officially be renamed Atractosporocybe sclerotoidea.