Tagged: morel

Black morels can be distinguished from yellow morels by their dark ridges and light pits. Other morels have light ridges with darker (or only slightly darker) pits.  Morchella angusticeps is the most widespread black morel in North America.  It can be found almost anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains, although it is not as common as yellow morels (see FFF#086 and FFF#226).  There are a handful of black morel species, but you can easily identify M. angusticeps because it is the only one in eastern North America that does not grow in burn sites or on wood.

Eastern North America has two general forms of yellow morels: large and small.  Large morels (see FFF#086) typically grow up to 22cm when fully grown, whereas the smaller versions grow up to only 12.5cm tall.  But size isn’t the only difference; the smaller yellow morels tend to be thinner in relation to their height and have long vertical pits.  The larger morels typically look stouter and have more random pits.  Small morels are commonly known as “Tulip Morels” because of their association with tulip trees.  Tulip morels comprise two species that are nearly indistinguishable: Morchella diminutiva and M. sceptriformis.

Some parts of the United States have been enjoying morel season for weeks now, but it’s just getting started here in the Mid-Atlantic states. Last weekend (on Earth Day, in fact), there were very few fresh mushrooms and the majority of those were the Half-Free Morel. Half-Free Morels tend to be the first morels to appear, so morel season seems to be proceeding normally (if a bit late) despite the erratic weather in March. Although I’d never found the Half-Free Morel before, it was instantly recognizable. Like the other true morels, it has a ridged and pitted cap as well as a hollow stipe. Unlike the other true morels, only half of the cap attaches to the stipe and the bottom half of the cap hangs down over the stipe. This distinctive morphology gives the mushroom its common name, the “Half-Free Morel.”