Morchella tomentosa

Black Foot Morel

A western North American fire morel whose young cap and stem are covered in dense gray to nearly black fuzz. It fruits mainly in the spring after a forest fire in burned conifer forests, usually at high elevation, and fades to grayish, tan or yellowish with age. Western commercial pickers call it the gray morel. McKnight & McKnight (1987) applied the invalid name Morchella atrotomentosa to it.

Species profile

Edibility: Edible with caution

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Edible and collected commercially as the gray morel, but only when thoroughly cooked; raw or undercooked morels cause gastrointestinal upset. Dangerous look-alikes: false morels (Gyromitra and Discina species, some containing the potentially deadly toxin gyromitrin) have brain-like, wrinkled or lobed caps and are chambered or cottony inside; Verpa bohemica's cap hangs free from a cotton-stuffed stem. Cut every specimen lengthwise to confirm it is hollow throughout.

Habitat

Alone, scattered or in groups in burned conifer forests, primarily in the spring after a fire and sometimes in dwindling numbers for a few years afterward; usually at high elevation. Possibly saprobic and mycorrhizal at different stages of its life cycle.

Distribution

Western North America, from Colorado to northern California and Alaska. A 2008 report from a jack pine burn in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is undocumented because no specimen was kept. Whether the European taxon Moser called M. atrotomentosa is the same species is unknown.

Characteristics

Cap: 3-11 cm tall and 2-5 cm wide, egg-shaped to nearly conical, pitted and ridged; densely fuzzy and gray to nearly black when young, becoming grayish, pale tan, yellowish or whitish, especially in direct sun. Stem: 2-6 cm long, 1-4 cm wide, often swollen at the base; dark gray to nearly black and densely fuzzy when young, becoming pale with stretched brownish patches of remaining fuzz; cap and stem hollow. Microscopic: hairs on the ridges and stem abundant, up to 275 x 17 um, brown-walled in KOH. Spores: 18-20 x 8-12 um, smooth, elliptical, without oil droplets (MushroomExpert.com).