Gyromitra caroliniana

Gyromitra caroliniana
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Ascomycota
Class: Ascomycetes
Order: Pezizales
Family: Discinaceae
Genus: Gyromitra
Species: G. caroliniana
Binomial name
Gyromitra caroliniana
(Bosc) Fr. (1811)
Synonyms[1]

Morchella caroliniana Bosc (1811)
Helvella caroliniana (Bosc) Nees (1817)
Mitrophora caroliniana (Bosc) Lév. (1846)
Neogyromitra caroliniana (Bosc) S. Imai (1932)
Discina caroliniana (Bosc) Eckblad (1968)
Fastigiella caroliniana (Bosc) Benedix (1969)

Gyromitra caroliniana, known colloquially as big red in Missouri and Kansas, is an ascomycete fungus of the genus Gyromitra, found in the southeastern United States. Growing to large sizes, it is found in spring and is collected and eaten by some. However, there is some suggestion it may contain gyromitrin like its poisonous relative, the false morel G. esculenta. It belongs to the Pezizales group of fungi.

The fruit body, or ascocarp, appears in woodland, and can grow to massive sizes. The heavily wrinkled cap is red-brown in colour. Originally named Morchella caroliniana by French botanist Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc in 1811,[2] it was given its current name by Elias Magnus Fries in 1871.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Gyromitra caroliniana (Bosc) Fr. 1872". International Mycological Association. http://www.mycobank.org/MycoTaxo.aspx?Link=T&Rec=216414. Retrieved 2011-11-03. 
  2. ^ Bosc L. (1811). "Mémoire sur quelques espèces de Champignons des parties méridionales de l'Amérique septentrionale" (in French). Magazin der Gesellschaft Naturforschenden Freunde Berlin 5: 86. 
  3. ^ Fries E. (1891). "Queletia, novum Lycoperdaceorum genus. Accedit nova Gyromitrae species" (in Latin). Öfvers. K. VetenskAkad. Förh. 28 (2): 171–4.