Early false morel

Description

The early false morel is a spring mushroom with a yellow-brown to dark brown head shaped like a thimble or a bell, folded into longitudinal ridges, 2–5 cm tall. The head is attached to the stem only at the very top, and the rest hangs free like a cap. The stem is cream, brittle, filled with cotton inside, and later hollow.

It grows from March to May, usually before morels, in damp deciduous forests, thickets and parks, especially under aspens, ashes and alders. In Poland it occurs throughout the country, but it is threatened with extinction and partially protected.

It can be confused with the half-free morel, which has the head attached for 1/3–1/2 of its length, and with the species called false morels. Caution: mushrooms of this type can be poisonous if prepared improperly, so do not collect them without being sure of the identification and of the legal rules.

Identification features

Cap

The head (cap) is 2–5 cm tall and 2–4 cm in diameter, conical to bell-shaped, attached to the stem only at the apex, the rest free and standing away. Surface ribbed: low, thin, wavy ridges, joined crosswise in places, with pits (alveoli). Colour from yellow-brown to dark brown (according to some descriptions to red-brown), underside pale.

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

A sac fungus (Ascomycota): the spore-bearing layer (hymenium) lines the outer surface of the head; there are no gills or tubes.

Stem

Stem 6–20 cm tall (descriptions give different ranges), thickness 1–2.5 cm, cylindrical, sometimes flattened and bent, narrowed towards the top; at first cottony, then hollow, brittle. Surface at first whitish with whitish fibrils, then bare, cream-yellowish with ochre-orange spots. In section usually with cottony strands of hyphae.

Flesh

Thin, waxy, white. Taste mild, smell mushroomy. With mushrooms of unclear edibility, do not taste the flesh raw.

Spore print and spores

Spore print yellow. Spores smooth, strongly elongated, ellipsoidal, sometimes slightly curved, glassy to yellowish, very large: 50–100 × 15–25 µm (descriptions give different ranges). Most often two (rarely three) spores in an ascus.

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. Terrestrial saprotrophic fungus; possibly mycorrhizal, at least in part of its life cycle. Grows singly or in groups in deciduous forests, thickets and parks, especially under aspens, ashes and alders (according to some descriptions also under poplars and willows, often along riverbanks), in damp and sunny places.

Distribution. Northern Hemisphere: Europe, northern North America, Asia (India, Turkey). In Poland throughout the country; by 2020, 120 localities had been recorded. On the Red List of Plants and Fungi of Poland in category V (vulnerable); in Poland strictly protected in 1983–2014, partially protected since 2014 (Journal of Laws 2014, item 1408).

Fruiting. From March to May, in early spring after the thaw, usually before morels appear.

What can it be confused with?

• Morchella semilibera (half-free morel) and other “half-free” morels — The head is attached to the stem for 1/3–1/2 of its length (in the early false morel only at the apex); the stem of the half-free morel is hollow in section and usually has vertical openings at the base, while the early false morel has cottony strands and no openings; spores much smaller.
• Verpa conica (smooth thimble cap) — Smaller fruiting bodies, surface of the head usually smooth (not folded), eight spores in the asci.

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 one of the earliest spring mushrooms and usually appears before morels.
• It has some of the largest spores among fungi: 60–80 µm long, two in each ascus.
• The asci are heliotropic: they bend towards the light, which helps to direct the discharge of spores towards open space (observations by Buller).
• In Poland it was strictly protected in 1983–2014, partially since 2014; on the Red List it has category V.