Introduction This family has the true morels, some false morels, a cup, and some tasty truffles. True morels are poisonous raw. abundant common uncommon rare - colour codes match my Pictorial Key and are my opinions and probably reflect my bias of living in W WA. Rare species may be locally common in certain places at certain times.

Morels - click to expand Morchella - the bottom of the cap attaches to the stem except in one local species where only the top half of the cap is attached. The stem is hollow. In Verpa, the cap only attaches to the stem at the top and the stem is stuffed. They are all found in the spring. Some are famous for fruiting the first spring after a forest fire. They are poisonous raw.   Section Rufobrunnea - the basal ancestral line of all other morels Morchella rufobrunnea Mexico - found in disturbed areas, pale like a yellow morel (especially on the ridges), but with pits arranged vertically like a black morel, this unique morel stains reddish brown. It is more common in CA, but only occasionally found here, where you're much more likely to find a darker, non-staining, black landscape morel in disturbed areas. We don't have any local, sequenced collections yet, but it has been spotted in WA, OR, and ID. Morchella rufobrunnea © Tim Sage Section Morchella (Yellow Morels) - usually pale (not necessarily yellow) but more importantly, the pits are arranged haphazardly, not vertically like in other morels. Also, the area around the top of the stem is typically not indented like it is for black morels. Morchella americana MI (Morchella esculenta EU misapplied) - usually with hardwoods. Morchella vulgaris EU (Morchella prava MI misapplied) - usually a more irregular or contorted looking species. Our one WA sequence is the EU species M. vulgaris, not the ENA species M. prava, but an AZ sequence is M. prava, so that is to be looked for here too. Morchella americana © Leanne Stacy Reitan,     M. vulgaris © Michael Beug Section Distantes (Black Morels) - usually dark, but even when pale the pits are arranged vertically, not as haphazardly as in the yellow morels. Also, there is an indentation "ant runway" around the top of the stem that is usually lacking in yellow morels. The fire morels and most landscape morels are here. The Yellow Black Morel - unique subsection Morchella tridentina EU (=Morchella frustrata CA) - reported from both hardwood and conifer. I prefer the newer name M. frustrata, because it can be frustrating that although this species, in its own clade, is coloured like a yellow morel, it has the vertically arranged pits of a black morel, which it is more closely related to. NA sequences of the newer M. frustrata are a few bp different than EU sequences of M. tridentina but without any known morphological or ecological differences, they are considered the same. Morchella americana (from CA) © iNaturalist user chickenofthewoods   The Half-Free Black Morel - unique subsection - only the top half of the cap is attached to the stem, it is almost Verpa-like. Even the length of the pits can resemble Verpa. Morchella populiphila OR (Morchella semilibera EU misapplied) - note the variety of pit arrangement. Often prefers cottonwood. Morchella populiphila (2 images) © Michael Beug   Burn and Landscape Black Morels - two clades Morchella tomentosa MT - in its own clade, this burn morel is fuzzy grey, fruiting later in the spring than the M. eximia group. Morchella tomentosa © Damon Tighe Morchella eximia EU (=M. anthracophila BC, =M. carbonaria BC)/septimilata MT/sextilata MT/sp. 'sextilata-PNW02'/exuberans CA (=M. capitata OR) - these 5 burn species are exceedingly difficult to tell apart, even with a scope. M. exuberans can be distinguished microscopically from the others, but the rest are cryptic without DNA. Multiple species may produce "pinkies" (with pink tones) or "greenies" (with green tones). All usually fruit earlier in the spring than M. tomentosa. Some collections of M. septimelata have a different ITS1 and one collection has both versions. These burn morels form a clade with the landscape urban morels. Morchella sp. 'Mel-8' - an urban burn morel, found in OR and CA in suburban landscaping, half the time with fireplace ash or other burn debris nearby, but it has not yet been found in a wildfire. Morchella importuna WA/sp. 'importuna-PNW01' - the landscape morel most commonly found the first spring after a ground disturbance. So maybe you should take a backhoe to your property every winter, but don't do it, but if you did do it it might totally work. Rarely, members of a sister clade are found, that seem to be more likely to be growing in bark and wood chips then from disturbed ground. Morchella hotsonii WA, below, can also be found in urban areas. unsequenced Morchella eximia group members (pinkies and greenies) © Michael Beug (2 images),     M. sp. 'Mel-8' © Jonathan Frank,     M. importuna © Drew Henderson   Natural Black Morels - found in unburned forests. These species are really hard to tell apart with ITS only, with as little as 1 or 2 bp differences between them. Morchella hotsonii WA - this elusive mystery finally has some collections. It is found both in the wild and in urban areas, but clades with the natural species. Morchella synderi ID - pale colours when young, stem often with ribs and holes. May grow in clusters. Early spring under conifers. Morchella brunnea OR - grows singly and has a more slender and more brittle stem than M. snyderi, with a deeper ant runway. Early spring under hardwoods and conifers. Morchella sp. 'PNW07' (eohespera WA?/laurentiana NFLD?/norvegiensis EU?) - some of these species possibilities are supposedly late spring spruce associates. But something confusing is going on here. M. eohespera was described from across North America and Europe, but the type was chosen from WA. The same publication described M. laurentiana from eastern NA, with very similar ITS. Then somebody decided that M. eohespera was the same as the older M. norvegiensis, but they didn't consider M. laurentiana and they didn't use any sequences from the PNW, the type area, only EU sequences purporting to be M. eohespera to make that conclusion. We have many local sequences in this group, but need to figure out what name to apply. If they are not M. eohespera, then what is? Stay tuned. Morchella sp. 'PNW08' - from OR and CA does not quite match any known species perfectly. Morchella hotsonii (2 images) © Daniel Winkler,     M. snyderi and M. brunnea © Ed Barge,     M. sp. 'PNW07' © Yi-Min Wang

Verpa - click to expand Verpa - sometimes much like morels, but the cap only attaches to the stem at the top and the stem is stuffed with a pithy cotton-like substance. The pattern of the pits is unique, too, with very elongated pits instead of ovals or circles, or no pits at all (just a conical cap). Occasional bizarre temporary loss of coordination is reported by some people after eating them, even if they usually eat them without incident.   Verpa bohemica EU - pitted similar to a morel, but with elongated pits. Under hardwoods, especially cottonwood. Local sequences vary by a few bp in ITS from EU type area sequences. Verpa sp. 'PNW01'/'PNW02'/'PNW03'/'M90' (Verpa conica EU misapplied) - with a smooth conical cap. I don't know how to tell our 4 species apart yet, but different species may prefer different trees. Verpa bohemica © Drew Henderson,     V. sp. 'conica-PNW02' © Warren Cardimona

Cups - click to expand Disciotis - differentiated from other cups by a bleach odor, dark brown upper surface, and paler under-surface with dots around the rim. Otherwise, most similar to Gyromitra cups, but there are lots of lookalikes.   Disciotis sp. 'PNW01' (Disciotis venosa misapplied) - my nickname for this is "bacon of the woods". Our species may be a conifer species. Discina sp. 'PNW01' © Michael Beug

Truffles - click to expand Fischerula, Kalapuya, and Leucangium. These don't seem to be poisonous raw like morels are, since truffles are often shaved uncooked.   Leucangium cascadiense OR (Leucangium carthusianum EU misapplied) - the Oregon black truffle, under <50 year old Douglas fir. The marbling pattern is more pointillist than in Tuber, which include the Oregon white truffles, with spots instead of meandering lines. It is very much like the EU species whose name we have been applying, with geography being the best way to separate them. Leucangium purpureum China - similar, with a pinkish brown exterior! Kalapuya brunnea OR - the Oregon brown truffle (a similar colour as L. purpureum) with the same spotted marbled interior as Leucangium, under <50 year old Douglas fir. Fischerula subcaulis OR -a dark pinkish brown truffle that is purple-black inside when mature that has the remnants of a column, unlike the homogenous interiors of the other genera, with the marbling pattern radiating from the columella. This is the only truffle I know of with both a columella and a true marbling pattern. Prefers Douglas fir. Leucangium cascadiense, L. purpureum, Kalapuya Brunnea, and Fischerula subcaulis © Heather Dawson

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