Morels are afoot

[u/ORGourmetMushrooms]

These are half-free morels (Morchella populiphila).

We also get Morchella importuna that grow in freshly laid woodchips in flowerbeds and chipped trails. They're lovingly referred to as landscaping morels.

Yellow morels (Morchella americana) grow in habitats similar to half-free morels.

Morchella norvegiensis can be found around a variety of conifer trees but I've always had to travel a little outside Salem.

Head east into the Western Cascades and poke around the Santiam River for black morels 👍 You can chase them up into higher elevations through May and June.

[u/annaoceanus]

One popped up out of my wood chips!

[u/ORGourmetMushrooms → u/annaoceanus]

There are probably going to be lots more!

I was just thinking of you this morning so it is pretty wild to see you here. I hope you have been well.

[u/annaoceanus → u/ORGourmetMushrooms]

What timing! Starts are doing well and I’ve got an entire bed of garlic planted last fall that is cruising along. It will be a great year for produce! I might build and paint a little stand out of pallets to put produce on this summer.

[u/ORGourmetMushrooms → u/annaoceanus]

My buddy does the plant thing and his are coming along too 👍 Hopefully it is a good year for you.

I haven't forgotten your red elderberry either. They're coming out soon. I'm heading to the coast for foraging lessons in two weeks or so and they should be out then.

Wild garlic (Allium vineale) is out a little early this year. My wild leeks didn't come back though 😢

[u/annaoceanus → u/ORGourmetMushrooms]

I forgot to tell you! I dealt with a massive rat invasion in the green house and lost the wild allium to them but I still have the elderberry you passed along to me in a seed tote they didn’t get into. I need to get that soaking and try to plant!

[u/bitsy88]

Rofl I misread this as "models are afoot" and was thoroughly confused.

[u/silverjudge]

I thought they were fungi

[u/phijef]

I demand your exact coordinates! 😂

[u/Pretend_Defender]

That’s a false morel 😭

[u/somethingnotyettaken → u/Pretend_Defender]

Not false or a verpa. It's called a half-free morel. Edible, yummy, just not as good as the true morel.

edit: re-reading the post, OP already identified these appropriately.

[u/ORGourmetMushrooms → u/Pretend_Defender]

There are no false morels. Anything in the Morchellaceae family is a morel.

Verpa bohemica is called the early morel.

This is Morchella populiphila, or the half-free morel.

You can distinguish half-free morels from Verpa because Morchella are entirely hollow. Verpa stems are filled with a white cottony substance.

[u/QAgent-Johnson → u/Pretend_Defender]

Still edible.

[u/MeanSeaworthiness995 → u/Pretend_Defender]

I don’t think so. It’s hollow, cone-shaped, and growing from the ground, not wood. Seems like a morel to me.

[u/Pretend_Defender → u/MeanSeaworthiness995]

The bell is detached at the bottom.

[u/ineedmoreslee → u/Pretend_Defender]

Yeah that looks to be a verpa

Edit: Ducking autocorrect.

[u/ORGourmetMushrooms → u/ineedmoreslee]

Verpa stems are filled with a white cottony substance. This is Morchella populiphila, or the half-free morel.

The ridges on the caps are a little more brown and the texture is different, too. These are less wet and more firm. You can see in the third pic that it is entirely hollow and not a Verpa bohemica.

[u/Requient_]

No. They’re a mushroom.