Helvella elastica
investiganda
f. cul.
Helvella elastica investiganda
investiganda: Owed an investigation. The species is on the Needs Investigation table because a question stands on its published record that the Key cannot read a verdict from: a poisoning reported and no molecule found, a molecule found and no sourced route, a mark in a source list, a molecule known from this one species and not yet confirmed. The name is the stem of its recorded molecule, where the record names one and decides it, then investiganda, and nothing after it while the row is open. Where the record names no molecule the name is investiganda alone, and the gap is deliberate. The Key reads molecules: it puts a molecule in a name only when a record has placed that molecule in the mushroom. A poisoning report is not such a record; it says that harm occurred, not what caused it. The molecule may well exist, and the word states that it is to be found, not a guess at what it will be. The species is not innocuus, because innocuus means that the published record carries no link to a toxic molecule, and this species is on the table because the question of such a link is open; it would be innocuus only once the question is closed in that direction. The species leaves the table, and the word, by a ruling: its molecule registered and read, or its record found to carry no molecule after all. Latin, the gerundive of investigare: to be investigated.
On Needs Investigation, The Complete Table.
GBIF: photographs, names and where it has been found.
Sources
| Li et al. 2021 | 8 reports of eating without harm Li H, Tian Y, Menolli N Jr, Ye L, Karunarathna SC, Perez-Moreno J, Rahman MM, Rashid MH, Phengsintham P, Rizal L, Kasuya T, Lim YW, Dutta AK, Khalid AN, Huyen LT, Balolong MP, Baruah G, Madawala S, Thongklang N, Hyde KD, Kirk PM, Xu J, Sheng J, Boa E, Mortimer PE (2021). Reviewing the world's edible mushroom species: a new evidence-based classification system. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 20: 1982-2014. Supplementary Table S1. link |
| Boa E 2004 | ‘food’ — Annex 3 Boa E R (2004). Wild edible fungi: a global overview of their use and importance to people. Non-Wood Forest Products 17. Rome: FAO. ISBN 92-5-105157-7. link |
| Wu et al. 2019 | ‘E’ — Wu et al. 2019, Table 1, p. 21: E (edible) Wu F, Zhou L-W, Yang Z-L, Bau T, Li T-H, Dai Y-C (2019). Resource diversity of Chinese macrofungi: edible, medicinal and poisonous species. Fungal Diversity 98: 1-76. doi:10.1007/s13225-019-00432-7. Table 1, 'Medicinal fungi and their function(s)'. link |
Needs Investigation. Why it is here: reported toxic raw; the test here is the raw mushroom (recalled by Claude (AI); not yet verified). What would settle it: Find the report of raw toxicity and what it attributes it to: Rule 1's portion test is raw. If no report is found, the flag lapses and the species returns to the list.
Cite this pageRubel, William. 2026. “Helvella elastica.” Taxonomy of Toxins. Last modified 24 October 2026. https://taxonomyoftoxins.com/species/helvella-elastica/