Helvella crispa

"The Pezizales: Helvella crispa

Here uprear the weird and wacky heads of assorted Pezizales, a group specializing in a variety of singular shapes - cups & saucers, mini bowls, saddles, elfin equipment, accoutrements, brains, not to mention outspillings of jumbled intestines, whatever, and encompassing both superb edibles and unpredictable killers, the Morels and the Gyromitras. Also a few family beauties such as Helvella crispa, the exquisite Fluted White Helvella, above, once thought to be edible, not anymore - but at last benign, and in any case too elegant for eating; its suede ivory skirts, beautifully gathered and shaped, spring from stalks airily engineered with minute T-beams and U-beams. It also comes in black, equally sophisticated and handsome."

In publication, Page 32: "Reflections on the Fungaloids" by B.L. Williamson, Ottawa, 1992. ISBN 1-894572-65-3