If you aren't a mushroom forager, you probably haven't seen this strange, rare mushroom in the wild. However, you might have heard of it because of its delicious reputation. What is it? It's a morel! Morels only sprout for a short time in early spring - late March through May, and can be found in most of the United States. They are known to grow under deciduous trees in most of the U.S, but under conifers in the western region. In addition, morels are known to grow in forests frequently burned by fires. Moderate-intensity fires results in higher morel growth than low or high. There are around 60 species of morels, and several color types: yellow (mostly beige) morels, white morels, and black/brown morels, all of which are quite rare and considered a delicacy. However, if you are foraging for morels, make sure you do not find a toxic false morel!
This might look like a morel from the outside, but it is not! This is a toxic, more common false morel, which is known to grow alongside true morels. How can you tell which is which? For some species, false morels look quite different:
But for some, like the one in the first picture, true and false morels look almost identical. However, determining which is which is not a matter of trial and error. True morels are hollow in both the stype and fruiting body, whereas false morels are not hollow. When you pick a morel, the stype should be brittle and there should be a hole where it was plucked (see following image)
If the mushroom you found looks like this, it is a true morel. If your mushroom looks like the mushroom at right in the picture below, it is not a true morel!
However, even if you do find a true morel, especially if it is not growing in a forest, I do not recommend you eat it, since it may contain toxic chemicals from the soil.
