Found playing disk golf

[Ishwish]

Found in Bonney Lake, WA at a local disk golf park. I don't partake in Verpa bohemica but was excited to see a familiar face, also spotted some Trametes versicolor.

[John Smalldridge]

Nice photos and finds!

[vitog]

The Verpas precede Black Morels by a week or two; so you should be seeing true morels soon.  Everything is late this year in the Pacific Northwest.  I found my first blacks on April 7 last year, but it looks like they won't show here in British Columbia until late April this year.

[Ishwish]

I've been checking the same area every few days, loads more Verpa but we haven't had warm enough ground temps yet. I think I found a great area for locating morels, this will be my first morel season. 

 

[Adawg]

 

To the new eye, the verpa is the closest look alike to the morel in my area .. If the cap is detached from the stem it is not morel .  If the mushroom is not hollow, not a morel . Just thought I would post this to help the new pickers .  I am no shroom expert but I have picked my share of merkles .. There are a variety of morels/merkles that are called half frees. But ,I think best not to muddy the water .. Great pics Ishwish ..

[Dave W]

Yup, Verpa bohemica (early false morel) looks very similar to Morchella punctipes (the American half-free morel). Like Adawg said, it's the cap-stalk attachment and the stalk interior that sets apart Morchella from Verpa. I find Verpa conica here in PA. Young specimens have the cottony stuffing inside the stipe, but this can wither/erode as the stipe expands. 

[MushroomDan]

Are Verpa edible? Just curious if we spot one. We have a few trips planned going to be our first morel season.

[Dave W]

According to a toxicology expert whom I just heard speak about a week ago, Verpas are not toxic. I have shied away from eating them, on account of the many reports of undesirable effects... nausea, dizziness, the "bends". But according to what I heard at the talk, these accounts all stem from a single report registered long ago by a famous mycologist, and this report may have been a misdiagnosis. If I find Verpas in good shape, I'll try some cooked very well. There's one spot where I find a few each spring (Verpa conica is what I find. The ones seen in the photos here are Verpa bohemica.)

[vitog]

When I first started mushrooming in BC back in the 1970s, Verpa bohemica was described as edible in all of the mushroom books.  I collected quite a few at first because they were fairly abundant, and true morels were scarce.  My wife and I ate them and did not notice any ill effects; however, they didn't have much flavor.  We stopped eating them because chanterelles were quite abundant and much better tasting and because, years later, I started reading reports about Verpas' being poisonous.  After I started finding morels I realized that true morels are much better tasting than Verpas; and there was no reason to pick Verpas even if they were edible.  More recently, I tasted Verpa conica out of curiosity and found it to be pretty tasteless as well.  Since personal opinions of taste vary so much, others may disagree; but I don't think that Verpas are worth picking.

[The Mushroom Whisperer]

The Verpa bohemica that grow on the east side of WA state, taste quite good!  There is a large following for them, including me.  I haven't eaten any from the west side.  I am aware of one blind taste test, in which the eastside verpas were selected over lanscape morels.  

I'm heading out in a couple of days, to hunt them down!   Last year I also dried a bunch of V. bohemica, and they turned out great. 

Verpas have been bunched into the group of early morels, including Gyromitra (verpas are more closely related to morels), and because of this and the case of the famous mycologist that Dave mentioned, they have been much maligned!  The NAMA 30+year toxicology report shows a total of 8 adults and 1 child with verpa problems, but a total of 132 adults and 3 children with morel problems.  

I have gotten sick from 3 morel dinners, but not from verpas.

Normal rules of trying new mushrooms apply, when eating verpas:  fresh, young mushrooms, eat only a small amount the first time (not a quart of mushrooms shared with a friend, like the famous mycologist), eat them in moderation after the first time, and make sure they are cooked well done.

[chrislu0]

Where did you find them.