# Which Morchella am I?



## WillyFindEm (Mar 6, 2018)

Found these April 16th, 2017. Very first morels! All found around poplars near a creek. Are they poplar morels or yellows? Is there a difference?

Checked the same area over the last couple weeks and nothing yet. Do I need to change my approach earlier in the year? May Apples are just popping up and the redbuds aren’t blooming near me yet(Dekalb county).

Pretty new to this but I’m addicted. If I had the mushrooms for the amount of time I’ve put in I’d had them in the freezer all winter. I’ve found chanterelles much easier so far.


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## jack (Oct 17, 2012)

Morchella americana, thanks to DNA testing Morchella esculenta is now only known in Europe.


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## WillyFindEm (Mar 6, 2018)

Ok thanks Jack. So are yellows, blacks, greys and Poplar morels all Americanas? I see people reference the difference varieties and describe different patterns in relation to the variety. Like saying the blacks come up first for instance. I’m trying to narrow down if I need to be pinpointing specific areas earlier on or if I should just check spots that produce both early and late. (Not that I won’t check them all as much as I can) There’s only so much time off work!


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## jack (Oct 17, 2012)

Not to confuse you but.......there are somewhere around 25 different Morels, ( Morchella ) all are edible. Gray morels are immature white / yellow morels. There are several types of Black Morels and what you are calling Poplar / Tulip Morels are called Morchella diminutiva. I'll see if I can find the chart I used to have that shows them individually. 
This is one of my favorite finds called Morchella esculentoides . Now that's a real White Morel.
















These are what people call Gray Morels, which are just immature Morchella americana's.


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## sb (Apr 25, 2013)

Jack - Has DNA testing on Morels been done exhaustively?

Are more refinements in understanding still to come?

5 years ago, I gave up on trying to understand the nuances & changes in naming, figuring I'll 'get with the program' after the dust had settled. Do you think the dust has settled?


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## WillyFindEm (Mar 6, 2018)

Wow! Those whites are awesome! The great Albino mushroom hunter.... Do you target different nuances to find the different ones or am I trying to make it difficult? Is it more simplistic and you just merely find areas where Morchella grows and you will stumble upon the different varieties as you go.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond and show me those. Just trying to gain info on what I’ve found to help my hunting. Just to circle back around, what do you think I had in my picture. They were all found right around poplars but there were only a few. I can obviously go back to that spot but I didn’t find those there until midway through April.

Loving the site so far btw!


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## hstlrussell (May 17, 2017)

that dust will never settle. especially with morels, which have heterokaryotic mycelia, such that basically every new morel can be a variant of different subspecies.


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## sustainable forager (Mar 12, 2013)

Looks to be 2 diminutiva, the smaller less pitted ones, and a standard americana


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## sb (Apr 25, 2013)

Jack - This the chart you're talking about below?
Pages 3 & 4 of pdf at this location: 
http://www.kitsapmushrooms.org/docs/mycologia_morels_key.pdf
which was excercepted from: Taxonomic revision of true morels (Morchella) in Canada and the United States. 2012


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## sb (Apr 25, 2013)

HustleRussel - Does that invalidate the classifications based on DNA testing differences or bring in a probabilistic aspect, as in, 10/20 years from now it could look/test a little different and classifications could shift?


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## John1965 (Apr 6, 2017)

sb said:


> Jack - This the chart you're talking about below?
> Pages 3 & 4 of pdf at this location:
> http://www.kitsapmushrooms.org/docs/mycologia_morels_key.pdf
> which was excercepted from: Taxonomic revision of true morels (Morchella) in Canada and the United States. 2012
> ...


 Great chart, thank you.


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## John1965 (Apr 6, 2017)

sb said:


> HustleRussel - Does that invalidate the classifications based on DNA testing differences or bring in a probabilistic aspect, as in, 10/20 years from now it could look/test a little different and classifications could shift?


 Possibly we should gather a large quantity and do a "taste" test to validate these and give them ratings.. I will gladly volunteer!


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## jack (Oct 17, 2012)

Sb, yes, that's the one but this is only half of it. Do you have the other part with all the names ? There should also be a few more pictures of the rest of them. Thank you. Never mind, I just saw your links.


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## jack (Oct 17, 2012)

If anyone wants to purchase the newest, up to date book on Ascomycete Fungi by Michael W. Beug, Alan & Arleen Bessette. It came out in 2014 at the cost of $85.00 at most any Bookstore. This Book lists around 44 types & subspecies of Morchella.


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## jack (Oct 17, 2012)

WillyFindEm said:


> Do you target different nuances to find the different ones or am I trying to make it difficult?


I'm a tree hunter and all mushrooms have a host. Also different times of the growing season offers different types morels / mushrooms. Here in Michigan you will more often than not, find Burn Morels mainly in Jackpine burns. I've never found them in any other burn.


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## jack (Oct 17, 2012)

On another note, I'm curious to see what happens with the White / Yellow Morels here too. All our Ash trees died out, the dead trees only produced for a year later. I've heard from some people they are starting to use Maples as a host


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## sb (Apr 25, 2013)

Jack - thanks. I'm going to recommend our library buy it.
(update - I did recommend our Library System buy this book)

Oh, yea, one more thing . . .

"Morchella! . . . Iss good E'nuff for me"!


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## WillyFindEm (Mar 6, 2018)

That's interesting about the yellow/whites potentially finding a new host. Have you ran into anything like that before? Gotta know they'll find a way to adapt.
It kind of affirms that the behaviors of the Morel might be different for me in Tennessee than those of other states/regions. Not that there aren't similarities as well. I read an older thread about someone around Center Hill lake (where I am) finding morels around Hickory trees overlooking the lake. I'm pretty sure that someone close regionally later replied that they had found them solely around Hickories too. It caught my attention cuz that doesn't seem like the common host I hear people talk about. I could be remembering wrong about where the responder was, I'll have to go check.

I plan on going to check a big burn that happened in the Smokies. The burn was fall of 16' though. Will they still come up good the second season afterwards?


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