Teaser

On a stroll through the woods on this 37-degree day of howling winds, I happened upon a seasonal mushroom: a False Morel. Surprise, because my continual monitoring of soil temperature shows it still short of 50 degrees, the typical mushroom threshold. Identify the False Morel by its thick stalk and solid, "gabled" or ruffled head, in brown, red, yellow, or beige, as this one was. On March 20 I  had found a single mature Devil's Urn, a cup-like black mushroom (inedible), and usually when they pop up so do the morels, but there weren't any morels, true or false, and calendar-wise it was too early. Finding a False Morel (Gyromitra esculenta; inedible) indicates conditions are ripe for for the true morels, the ones everyone wants to eat. Despite the cold and lack of sun, this False Morel, encouraged by heavy rains, came up anyway, but again no true morels were in the vicinity. A tease.

True and False

After yesterday's rains we were up and running for what might be the last morels of the season, and after many fruitless hours in remote areas, a sweet spot delivered two morels at once: an edible yellow morel (Morchela esculenta), a big 'un, 10-plus centimeters; and a Gabled False Morel (Gyromita brunnea), interesting to look at, but containing the same chemical used in rocket fuel. Cooking the false ones will not make them safer. The yellow morel was photographed in place, before we cut it from the earth with scissors.

Gabled False Morel doesn't look much like a morel to me.