Classic Black Morels (Morchella species)

[ Ascomycetes > Pezizales > Morchellaceae > Morchella . . . ]

by Michael Kuo

The North American black morels are confusing from an evolutionary and taxonomic perspective--but they are fairly easily recognized, as a group of species. The ridges of black morels are pale or brownish at first, but quickly begin to darken and by maturity are dark brown to black. The pits are usually pale brown to brownish throughout development, but they are not infrequently greenish or pinkish, especially at high elevations. The arrangement of the pits and ridges is primarily vertical. The shape of the cap is often pointed and elongated, but not infrequently rounded off or even more or less round. The stem is whitish or pale brownish, and its surface is smooth or finely granular--but not velvety.

Black morels almost always feature a shallow "rim" at the point where the cap attaches to the stem (see the fourth illustration). The rim is usually big enough to serve as an "ant race track"; Classic Yellow Morels and Deliciosas either lack the rim, or feature a rim that is too small for imaginary racing ants.

Black morels are wonderfully edible, and often have a stronger, "wilder" flavor than yellow morels. In most areas they appear first in morel season, followed by the Half-Free Morels and yellow morels.

Study of morels in the Morel Data Collection Project has revealed at least five black morels in North America. Four of these are "morphologically inseparable" on the basis of present data--which means you can't tell them apart by looking at them (the fifth, Taxon J, has elaborately "laddered" pits and ridges and appears to be limited to landscaping sites in the Pacific Northwest).

Among the four inseparable black morels, one DNA-defined species (Taxon 5) is distributed across the continent, from eastern hardwood forests to western conifer burn sites and many other ecological settings; I call this morel the "Classic Black Morel." The three similar "classics" appear to have more limited ecological and geographic niches, but more data is needed before this can be said with scientific confidence--and even if these limitations turn out to apply, they wouldn't help much with black morel identification, since the Classic Black can grow anywhere its look-alikes appear.

Frustratingly, results from the study of MDCP morels do not support several putative "species" that have been defined by commercial collectors in western North America; "greenies" (also called "pickles") have turned out to represent more than one DNA-defined species, none of which is consistently green. Similar results apply to "conicas." See Identifying Morels with Morphology for more information.

North American field guides use several names for our continent's black morels, including Morchella elata and Morchella conica, which are European species that have not been compared, genetically, to any North American morels--and which cannot be compared until mycologists re-interpret these species and collect new "types" for comparison. The name Morchella angusticeps is the only North American scientific name for a black morel, but the name is probably invalid; see this page for details.

Description:

Ecology: Mycorrhizal and saprobic at different points in its life cycle; found under hardwoods and conifers; known for associations with ash, as well as other trees; often appearing in conifer burn sites in western North America in the year following the burn; spring (or summer at high elevation in the West); widely distributed in North America.

Cap: 3-9 cm; variable in shape but most frequently somewhat elongated and pointed; pitted and ridged, with blunt-edged ridges; pale when young (almost whitish when covered by leaves) and darkening with age until the ridges are black and the pits are pale yellowish brown to dark brown, or olive green, or pinkish; typically attached to the stem with a slight overhang or "rim"; hollow.

Stem: 2-8 cm; whitish or pale tan; sometimes darkening to brown in age; smooth or with granules; sometimes tinged pinkish; variable in shape; hollow.

Spore Print: Cream to yellowish or orangish.

Microscopic Features: Spores 21-24 x 12-15 µ; smooth, elliptical.

REFERENCES: (Smith, Smith & Weber, 1981; Weber & Smith, 1985; Arora, 1986; States, 1990; Phillips, 1991/2005; Lincoff, 1992; Weber, 1995; Evenson, 1997; Barron, 1999; Roody, 2003; Kuo 2005.)

Further Online Information:

Taxon 5 in the MDCP
Taxon 7 in the MDCP
Taxon 6 in the MDCP
Taxon 4 in the MDCP
Tom Volk: The Morel Life Cycle
Morchella elata at Roger's Mushrooms
Morchella conica at Fungi of Poland
Morchella elata at Fungi of Poland

© MushroomExpert.Com

Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2006, April). Black morels (Morchella species). Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/morchella_black.html.