Types of Morel Mushrooms

The half-free morel is an excellent edible mushroom. It's completely hollow. It has a honeycombed cap with brownish black ridges and yellowish brown pits. The bottom half hangs free from the whitish stalk.

Yellow morels (Morchella esculenta and related species) are more commonly found under deciduous trees rather than conifers, while black morels (Morchella elata and related species) are mostly found in coniferous forests, disturbed ground and recently burned areas.

Morchella importuna is a black morel, ... (including, especially, Morchella costata) ... oft-gawked-at photo of mushroom guru David Arora in his book Mushrooms ...

Morchella elata, the Black Morel, fruits from March to June and is a popular edible fungus, although less well known than the Common Morel, Morchella esculenta. Found in woods and forests, particularly beside woodland tracks, this swarthy morels often fruit in groups. In gardens and parks where bark mulch has been laid to reduce the need for weeding, Black Morels sometimes spring up in vast swathes, but unfortunately their appearance one year is no guarantee of a crop of morels in future years.

You can cultivate Morchella rufobrunnea, Morchella importuna and probably Morchella pragensis by getting the culture going on agar, moving to grain, then to wood chips. The latter two species likely taste better because they are closer phylogenetically to the burn morels.

Morchella rufobrunnea, commonly known as the blushing morel, is a species of ascomycete fungus in the family Morchellaceae. A choice edible species, the fungus was originally described as new to science in 1998 by mycologists Gastón Guzmán and Fidel Tapia from collections made in Veracruz, Mexico.

The yellow morel is a choice edible mushroom. It has a honeycombed cap with yellow to grayish to tan ridges and pits. It is completely hollow and grows in the spring.