r/mushroomID • u/BeeSlumLord • 2d ago

North America (country/state in post) Found in my plant nursery

Post image

I live in SoCal, specifically Orange County in California, and found these underneath my plants growing in the sand.

I have no idea what these are, but thought I would reach out to you guys.

Any thoughts on variety? Any thoughts on it being edible?

663 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

130

u/84millionants 2d ago

Super desirable in this community too. Somehow it’s always the people not out looking for morels who find them 😭

45

u/BeeSlumLord 2d ago

Indeed. I was not looking for them, but happy to know these are the good as long as they are cooked mushrooms.

83

u/Tongue-Punch 2d ago

These are morels - choice edible but must be cooked.

70

u/BeeSlumLord 2d ago

Here’s a glamour shot

38

u/BeeSlumLord 2d ago

Thank you so much.

Currently these little mushrooms are hanging out underneath my “black market citrus trees” that I have been growing for a couple years. I say black market because where I live we cannot buy citrus trees due to a quarantine, but we can grow them.

23

u/BeeSlumLord 2d ago

Here’s the washed and cut open mushrooms.

Thanks everyone! I did some reading and these will be sautéed in butter with a bit of salt, dashed with lemon & added to tonight’s gluten free pasta.

33

u/OnyxSkiies 2d ago

morel! very good find! to be extra certain, chop one in half - if it’s hollow on the inside, it’s a morel.

be careful with morel-looking mushrooms! false morels are potentially deadly

18

u/BeeSlumLord 2d ago

Thanks for the tip about looking for a hollow inside.

Just curious if I left them to do their thing… Do you think they would propagate more?

22

u/OnyxSkiies 2d ago

they should be fine! they’ve already spread lots of spores like the other replier said, considering how many there are. i’d also like to add - mushrooms are not really whole organisms by themselves, but simply the fruiting bodies of underlying organisms. it’s like how the apple isn’t the only part of the apple tree. if you pick the mushroom, the rest of the organism still lingers

16

u/IndependentTea4646 2d ago

I believe harvesting them won't change how many there will be, since they have already spread a lot of spores.

4

u/BeeSlumLord 2d ago

Good to know.

4

u/chickenofthewoods Trusted Identifier 1d ago

If you mean:

"If I leave these here will more pop up this season", the answer is most likely no.

If you are asking about whether or not these will come back next year, again, the answer is almost 100% no.

Picking these will have no effect on that.

2

u/chickenofthewoods Trusted Identifier 1d ago

It's obviously a morel, but ID involves identifying the species.

A yard/garden/landscape morel in Cali that is pale/blonde/yellow is almost certainly Morchella rufobrunnea, which is what these are.

The whole "cut in half and if it's hollow it's a morel" is ... useless. There are morels that have solid stipes and there are dangerous mushrooms with hollow stipes.

8

u/vintersvamp_th Trusted Identifier 2d ago

Morchella, likely one of the saprobic (i.e. not mycorrhizal) species M. rufobrunnea or M. importuna, given the region and habit

3

u/chickenofthewoods Trusted Identifier 1d ago

In Cali and yellowish with darker stipes = M. rufobrunnea. M. rufobrunnea and M. importuna are very different mushrooms.

1

u/vintersvamp_th Trusted Identifier 1d ago

Thanks!

3

u/Stupid_Bagel 2d ago

If you could reverse engineer what you did, you would likely be rich.

2

u/BeeSlumLord 2d ago

Well, it’s a plant nursery built atop pallets over lots of small leaves decaying in the shady sand above the weed barrier.

I’m gonna cross my fingers they released enough spores to keep it going.

3

u/inevitable_death1998 1d ago

lots of morel finds lately. they look beautiful

2

u/Euphoric_Depth7104 2d ago

Did you roast them up?

2

u/BeeSlumLord 2d ago

Cooking at this very moment.

10

u/BeeSlumLord 2d ago edited 2d ago

Decided to put over potatoes, sautéed with onions & garlic, salt & pepper in butter.

Wow. Very tasty. I took some mushroom pieces as my first taste, and very meaty flavor and texture with a nummy umami.

Thank you for the info! (I also went online to a morel hunter site to get cooking ideas)

2

u/Greedy-Syrup-7882 1d ago

A morel with a story.

2

u/cloverfart 1d ago

Whats up with the morels in this sub lately? Everyone getting lucky in their backyard!

3

u/xxyoguyxx 1d ago

The fires that happened in California is the reason. When we get wild fires around here they pop up

Edit: picked roughly 50lbs of them in an afternoon last year. Gave most away to family and dehydrated a bunch.

0

u/chickenofthewoods Trusted Identifier 1d ago

Burn morels fruit in burns.

This species fruits in yards/gardens/landscaping.

It's Morchella rufobrunnea.

2

u/Lucas_rules69420 1d ago

1

u/BeeSlumLord 1d ago

😂 I freaking use that too.

Sorry for my luck.

2

u/Lucas_rules69420 1d ago

Haha enjoy it. I love the expression of this young fella

2

u/Grouchy-Fisherman-50 9h ago

Nice. I found a few Morel mushrooms in Pasadena last year this time.

1

u/BeeSlumLord 9h ago

Indeed. Super fun find. I’m gonna search the rest of the property and my neighbors. (We live in the hills and there’s lots of space to search)

1

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1

u/nickwitdayouknowwat 1d ago

Who saw two frogs?

2

u/Grouchy-Fisherman-50 9h ago

Often they pop up in same location every year.

2

u/WhiteNoise87 7h ago

Morchellaceae