Elfin Saddle / Black Helvella

Helvella lacunosa

Forests, parks, roadsides. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies small. Cap 2-4 cm across, irregularly lobed, greyish-bluish, greyish-black. Stem up to 8 cm long and 2 cm thick, longitudinally irregularly ribbed, hollow, grey, blackish-grey, when old almost black. Flesh white, brittle, without a particular smell or taste. Grows singly or in groups, likes humus-rich, grassy places, sometimes grows on rotten wood, likes the company of birch and pine. Edible, fairly common. Found even in larger city squares.