ALL of these morels were found in Posey County Indiana by “bigdaddy”. Thanks so much for all the good info and the GREAT site!!! Happy hunting and good luck!!! — Thanks, - bigdaddy
Comments
9 Responses to “Indiana Morels - April 7, 2008”
Leave a Reply
The above picture I am quite sure is a half-free morel. I have never had a problem eating them, but they don’t have the intense flavor or shelf life as a yellow morel. Always ID, but would not scare anyone from picking this variety. These half-free’s are just a great indicator on what is coming soon. Good luck to all!
They are real shrooms, there not false just as bigdaddy says…. I have been finding those and eating the same for 40 years now and my mom for nearly 75 years… They are not false…. The stems have no cottony fiber in them, they are fine… ppl - you just keep leaving those in the woods ok & bigdaddy and I will keep picking them!
They look like half-free morels to me. If they were verpas the stalk would be filled with cotton-like fibers.
Hey from vanderburgh county here and found a handfull of what i think maybe some greys! They are white around the edges and black in the pits??? Are they greys??? Found some greys before but they were small and meaty but not this pitty.
They look like verpas to me….. Some folks can eat verpas with no problems, I’ve heard, and some folks get sick eating them… all depends upon your tolerance….
Here is some info from Wikipedia….
Early Morels
Verpa Bohemica are also called wrinkled thimble cap, or early morel, and Ptychoverpa Bohemica. Although the early false morels are sometimes eaten without ill effect, they can cause severe gastrointestinal upset and loss of muscular coordination (including cardiac muscle) if eaten in large quantities or over several days in a row. They should be parboiled and dried before use in cooking to break down a gyromitrin-like toxin (an organic, carcinogenic poison) that is produced by the mushroom.
The early false morels can be told apart from the true morels by careful study of how the cap is attached to the stalk. The edge of true morels’ (morchella) caps are intergrown with the stalk, but early morels’ (verpas) caps hang over like a thimble, for which they are sometimes referred to as “thimble morel”. Early false morels are the first morels to fruit in the spring, shortly after leaves begin to form on deciduous trees. Narrow-head morels (morchella angusticeps) fruit next, around May. The last morels to fruit are the yellow or white morels (Morchella esculenta), then crassipes.
Cap: the cap of false morels is wrinkled and irregular, bell shaped or cone shaped, attached only at apex (top) of cap not like true morels which have caps that are attached at the bottom, the color yellow brown to olive yellow or tan, darkens with age.
Stalk: 6-16 cm high, white to creamy or tan, hollow, often stuffed with white cottony pith. Spores when seen under a microscope are elliptical and have large oil droplets; true morels have no oil droplets.
WTH??? Come on, are you serious? These are morels, I have always known these as “pecker-heads”. They certainly are NOT in ANY way, shape, or form poisonious! I have eaten these (as well as blacks, greys, and of course; my favorite, yellows!) ever since I was a child! I have never heard of anyone saying something so….. stupid! “Sorry if that is not the best word to use. I am really NOT trying to piss anyone off or start any kind of name calling session, etc. But I have honestly never heard anyone anywhere make such an off-the-wall claim about pecker-heads before.”
-bigdaddy
*** And why I don’t know, but I found one extremely small ~1/2″ tall paecker-head on March 22, 2008 last year. I even sent in the photo and personally emailed the site admin a few times asking why it wasn’t listed as the first morel, never really figured out what the deal was; oh well. But that (March 22) was hands down the earliest that I have EVER found ANY morels in Southern Indiana!!!***
These are real mushrooms they are found in mid april in centrial IL . Vermilion county . I have found patches of 50-100 and more within 50ft radious . We call them a form of goose neck mushroom .
They are false morels danger don’t eat them!
At lessest look at a mushroom book to ID Them first!!!!!!!
are these real morels because it looks like the stalk is seperate from the head and i was told true morels are continous not seperatye?