My first batch of morels this year!

[The Mushroom Whisperer]

I found 28 morels today.  One was a blonde.  There were a bunch of verpas, too.

Everything was at low elevations.  All my spots up high still had snow!

Hopefully I can have a nice haul like Dave's, in a couple weeks!

[Dave W]

Some nice-sized Verpas. I don't see V. bohemica in my area. There's a couple spots where I run across V. conica. I'm guessing those morels are "naturals". The little blonde reminds me of the eastern NA species M. diminutiva. Do you get "fire morels"? 

[The Mushroom Whisperer]

Hi Dave, I am very grateful that we get V. bohemica and how big they are!  So delicious.

The morels are all naturals.  I'm not 100% sure on the i.d. of the blonde; possibly M. tridentina.

We do get burn morels, and when the fires are near, I'm there every day!  Last year was the best I've ever had for naturals, and 2013 was the best burn year:  I picked morels through September!

[vitog]

Whisperer, the mushroom that you referred to as a blonde looks like a young yellow morel to me.  The Western Blonde Morel, M. tridentina (or M. frustrata), has vertical ridges similar to black morels, which are closely related.  The photo shows ridges more typical of the yellow morel group.  It also seems to show the typical grey color of young yellows.  Here is a photo comparing a blonde (on the left) with a yellow morel that I found several years ago.

 

[The Mushroom Whisperer]

Thanks vitog.  I've gone years at a time without finding a single yellow or blonde morel, so I am not very familiar with them.  

So maybe M. prava, M. americana, or M. rufobrunnea.  The area trees were pine, Doug fir, and cottonwood, and this one was growing in a small cleared area.  No signs of red staining, though.

[Dave W]

M. americana has a very wide distribution in North America. My guess about the yellow morel would be this species. The blonde... not familiar with the western "naturals". (I have picked blonde fire morels, a different species.) One name applied to western "blondes" is Morchella frustrata (see vitog's post above)... named --I believe-- because the ID of this blonde that has the stature typical of a black morel is frustrating to ID.