Gyromitra caroliniana, known colloquially as big red in Missouri

Missouri

Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 and Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, is an ascomycete fungus

Fungus

A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...

 of the genus Gyromitra

Gyromitra

Gyromitra is a genus of ascomycete mushrooms found in the northern hemisphere. The most famous member is the controversial false morel ...

, 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

Gyromitrin

Gyromitrin is a toxin and carcinogen present in several members of the fungal genus Gyromitra, most notably the false morel G. esculenta. It is unstable and is easily hydrolyzed to the toxic compound monomethylhydrazine, a component of some rocket fuels. Monomethylhydrazine acts on the central...

 like its poisonous relative, the false morel

False morel

Gyromitra esculenta , one of several species of fungi known as false morels, is an ascomycete fungus from the genus Gyromitra, widely distributed across Europe and North America. It normally sprouts in sandy soils under coniferous trees in spring and early summer...

 G. esculenta. It belongs to the Pezizales

Pezizales

The Pezizales are an order of the subphylum Pezizomycotina within the phylum Ascomycota. The order contains 16 families, 199 genera, and 1683 species. It contains a number of species of economic importance, such as morels, the black and white truffles, and the desert truffles. The Pezizales are...

 group of fungi.

The fruit body, or ascocarp

Ascocarp

An ascocarp, or ascoma , is the fruiting body of an ascomycete fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and may contain millions of asci, each of which typically contains eight ascospores...

, appears in woodland, and can grow to massive sizes. The heavily wrinkled cap

Pileus (mycology)

The pileus is the technical name for the cap, or cap-like part, of a basidiocarp or ascocarp that supports a spore-bearing surface, the hymenium. The hymenium may consist of lamellae, tubes, or teeth, on the underside of the pileus...

 is red-brown in colour. Originally named Morchella caroliniana by French botanist Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc

Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc

Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc was a French botanist, invertebrate zoologist, and entomologist.-Biography:...

 in 1811, it was given its current name by Elias Magnus Fries

Elias Magnus Fries

-External links:*, Authors of fungal names, Mushroom, the Journal of Wild Mushrooming.*...

in 1871.