Yellow morel

Description

The black morel (smardz jadalny in Polish) has an oval or conical head, like a sponge or a honeycomb, coloured from cream and ochre to yellow-brown. The head is usually 3–10 cm high and hollow inside. The stem is pale, cream or whitish, granular and also hollow. When cut through, the whole mushroom is one hollow channel.

It grows in spring, usually in April and May, in deciduous and mixed forests, in meadows, orchards and gardens, often under ashes, on alkaline soils. In Poland it is rare, and since 2014 it has been under partial protection: collecting for personal use is allowed only in gardens, horticultural crops, forest nurseries and green areas.

The most dangerous mistake is the false morel (poisonous), whose head is folded like a brain and not with pits, and which is not hollow inside like the morel. If you are not sure of the species, do not pick or eat it.

Identification features

Cap

The head (the part of the fruiting body with the asci) 3–10 cm high and 2–7 cm in diameter, oval or conical, hollow inside, attached by its lower margin to the stem (forming a continuous cavity). Colour beige, ochre, yellow-brown (sometimes grey or almost black). Surface with irregular, rounded pits (alveoli) without a distinct direction; ridges usually paler than the pits.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

The hymenium lines the pits of the head; the ridges are sterile. No gills or tubes (Ascomycota).

Stem

Length 2–6 cm (some descriptions give 2–9 cm), thickness 2–4 cm (some descriptions give 2–5 cm), cream, yellowish or white, hollow, with a rough to finely granular surface, straight or with a widened, wrinkled base; in old specimens with brownish spots at the base. No ring or volva.

Flesh

Whitish, brittle, waxy. Taste mild, smell spicy. Raw it is toxic (see the medical section).

Spore print and spores

Spore print from white and cream to yellow-ochre (descriptions differ); difficult to obtain because of the shape of the fruiting body. Spores ellipsoid, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline, often with droplets: 16–23 × 8.8–14 µm (descriptions give different ranges).

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Terrestrial fungus. Grows in deciduous and mixed forests, also in meadows, in floodplain forests, orchards, gardens, on green-overgrown rubbish tips and fertilised soils; often under ashes; sometimes on burn sites. According to some authors it forms mycorrhiza (spruce, Douglas fir, larch, dune pine, ash), but these are probably weak, facultative biotrophic associations. It prefers calcareous substrate, also occurs on acidic.

Distribution. All continents except Antarctica, most localities in Europe. Rare in Poland, throughout the country; up to 2020 about 260 localities, requiring verification of identification because of changes in morel taxonomy. Red List 2006: R (rare). In 1983–2014 under strict protection, since 2014 under partial protection (Dz.U. 2014 item 1408).

Fruiting. In Europe in April and May; in North America from February to July, depending on the region.

What can it be confused with?

• Gyromitra esculenta (false morel) and Gyromitra gigas (snow morel) — The head is not elongated but wide, folded like a brain, and not with pits. The false morel is poisonous.
• Morchella crassipes (thick-footed morel) — Larger, with a thick stem, granular and warty in the upper part; young specimens are difficult to distinguish.
• Phallus impudicus (common stinkhorn) and other stinkhorns — They have a volva at the base of the stem and are covered with a foul-smelling, slimy spore mass.
• Morchella angusticeps and related species — Their heads are dark throughout development; in the yellow morel the head is pale, and the ridges remain paler than the pits.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• It is the type species of the genus Morchella; Linnaeus described it in 1753 as Phallus esculentus.
• Since 2014 the name M. esculenta means, according to DNA analyses, only one species of yellow morel from Europe (also China); North American yellow morels have been given new names.
• The morel was the first mushroom recognised as a state mushroom in the USA (the state of Minnesota).
• Polish Post issued a stamp with this mushroom on 31 August 2012 (1.95 zł) in the series "Mushrooms in Polish forests"; inside the fruiting bodies centipedes sometimes live, and a small hole at the top betrays colonisation.