Hypothesis: Morel?

[Weajiin]

As far as I can tell...the morels are here!

I think at first I found a black morel, but that may also be because it was growing above a septic tank, doubt I will be eating it unfortunately. Afterwards I quickly went to a spot I knew to have produced about a pound of morels one year before. Low and behold there they were. These budding yellow morels.

Is my hypothesis correct?

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5VXpPSW8occfkFXcmtXZVhxYXdoRlZ2ZEJGRHJCNVpkWFdKNlFkNk5zZXNXTVdSYmJ0Tkk&usp=sharing

[Dave W]

All mushrooms pictured are morels, probably all the same species. I believe that DeMotte is in Indiana...? So I'll gear my comments to morels found east of the Rockies.

These are all what people east of the Rockies generally call "grays" or "yellows." They start out with ridges whitish, grayish, or light yellow and mature into larger gray, tan, or yellow ones. The pits on the cap are usually dark colored at first and lighten up a bit as the mushroom matures, But it's common for a "yellow" to start out with both ridges and pits yellow. Despite the variability in color, grays, yellows, and what some folks east of the Rockies call "whites", these types of morels fall under two or three species names that do not correlate very well with the cap color. Older field guides refer to these types as Morchella esculenta, or for the really large ones, M. crassipes. These technical names no longer apply to any NA morels.

There's another group of species of "grays", "yellows", and "whites" that are smaller with proportionally fewer pits on the cap and pits that are a bit more vertically elongated than the larger types. People sometimes call these "deliciosas." But the species name M. deliciosa does not apply to any NA morels.

Weajiin, the morels seen here all appear to fall under the general heading "esculenta types." None of them are what one would correctly call "black morel." These types make up a different cluster of species. Your first photo shows a young gray which has very dark pits. All of them look like newly emerged morels. So it looks like your morel season is about to take off!

In the Rockies and westward, the names "grays", "deliciosas" etc. refer to different species of Morchella than what one finds farther east.

[Weajiin]

Okay so he is just a dark looking yellow. The rest are coming up very nicely but im afraid of an incoming frost, is there anything i can do to save the little ones?

[Dave W]

Frost usually causes the very top of a highly exposed morel to deteriorate more quickly. If you find some with damaged cap-peaks it may be a good idea to cut off the very top, especially if you want to dehydrate for storage. If the morels are easily accessed, like in your yard, maybe you could place a cup or small bowl atop each one in the evening and then remove the following day. This is a "problem" I haven't run into.

[Weajiin]

An update on the morels. I found a very large one today. A home for a centipede, wouldn't it be neat to live inside a morel.

[Dave W]

Nice one! Living inside a morel... okay until someone comes along and cuts down your home :-)