#false morels

False morels

Gyromitra esculenta

Midweek haul! So the tiny orange babies are most likely Rickenella fibula, which has the absolute best description on mushroomexpert.com:

Probably saprobic but apparently involved in some sort of mutualism with moss

Oh to have people speculate about your apparent mutualism with moss!

First fungi of this year! These tiny fruiting bodies belong to false morels, deadly unless properly prepared. I’m not interested in them in a culinary sense, I just like the way they look and that they’re the first fungi to pop up. They like disturbed, sandy earth, and some people try to cultivate them by digging fairly big, round holes in the ground where forest has been cut down recently.

my friends have fanclans in the same territories too and we like to design cats from each others clans

Pacific Northwest US, June 2018

False morel (Gyromitra esculenta)

[Photo sent in by @fetching-redemption]

This is one of various species referred to as a ‘false morel’ - toxic fungi which might, or have been, mistaken for the edible and much-sought morels (Morchella sp.).

It can be recognised by its irregularly shaped cap, which is wavy and lobed rather than deeply pitted, as true morels are. The cap often slopes to one side, rather than being more or less symmetrical, is often wider than it is tall, and, if we were to cut this mushroom open, we would find several irregular tube- and cavern-like hollows divided by walls of thick white flesh, rather than a completely hollow mushrooms. This last point is the one to look out for while gathering morels - if the mushroom isn’t completely hollow from the tip of the cap to the base of the stem, don’t eat it!