1 The Arizona Fun Gi - Newsletter of the Arizona Mushroom Club ARIZONA MUSHROOM CLUB and the Foray Facts ARIZONA RARE FRUIT GROWERS ODDS & ENDS Spring is here and our Scouts Terry Joining to share information! AMC Member Holly Nipperus recom- Beckman and Jim Stanczak will be A great opportunity for AMC members mended a mushroom wallet for yourself checking sites. If a foray for Morel * Make plans to attend now* or as a gift for your special fungi friend. mushrooms is set, it will be on short You can find it at: notice. Please check the AMC website for The Arizona Rare Fruit Growers has invited https://www.cartfly.com/bunkyboutique information frequently, more so as the members of The Arizona Mushroom Club scroll down product category menu on weather warms up in the high country in to be their guests at a potluck meeting of the left to wallets. (THANKS HOLLY!) late April through the second week in the two organizations! There will be two, May. short, illustrated lectures on *Growing The 25th New Mexico Mycological Soci- Mushrooms* by Ralph Reynolds, a Club ety Annual Furay is in Taos, Aug. 20- For summer forays, start checking the member from New Mexico, and Dr. Ches- 23+ Unfortunately, this conflicts with website the end of July through ter Leathers, Club President. Several Rare the AMC Foray. But FYI, they do a the second week in September. Fruit Growers are interested in growing vouchering system and collect speci- http://az-mushroom-club.org mushrooms and would like to learn more mens for storage by the Southwest Mu- az_mushroom/AZ_Mushroom_Club_ about fungi and how to grow them. AMC seum of Biology's Herbarium at UNM. Events.htm members can learn about mushroom culti- vation as well as to learn of the success of From the Editor The 2009 White Mountains Foray for late growing rare fruits in the Valley of the This issue is dedicated to the Morel summer mushrooms is scheduled for the Sun. This promises to be an interesting Mushroom, with emphasis on Morels in weekend of August 22 & 23rd. and informative evening. Arizona. The good news is there is a Last years foray was my first with the vast amount of information on every AMC and although I could only attend facet of the morel in print, on video and the first day, it was a great experience. on the internet. The bad news is that The scouts did a great job and there Arizona is rarely mentioned and very were plenty of mushrooms in the chosen little information specific to this state area * I literally left my two friends be- exists. (or a least, very little your hind in my excitement at such a bo- exasperated editor can locate). So I nanza. I hope all of you can make this have endeavored to provide some basic event and bring along any interested and hopefully useful information on the family and friends. There are motels in What and What Not, When, Where and Springerville where many club members How of Morels. May the blessings of will be staying. If you have questions spring be plentiful for you and yours, about the event, contact Terry Beckman and include a bountiful morel season or Dr. Leathers. The club phone number wherever you may roam. is: 602-230-5281 (leave a message) The Rare Fruit Growers will provide a Happy Trails, Shelley Watanabe and the club e-mail is: club@az- potluck dinner including various locally mushroom-club.org. Additional contact grown fruits, among other dishes. For Copious amounts of information on information is available on the club web- Mushroom Club members who wish to Morels (and false morels) I suggest site. Those of you without web/e-mail bring their favorite mushroom dish to these two publications: access, you can call me directly share are encouraged to do so. If needed Spring Morels and False Morels of (Shelley at 928-368-4485) and I will try to keep the food warm, bring an extension Midcontinental U.S. to help or forward information to the cord and crock pot or warming dish. The http://acube.org/volume_27/ appropriate contact. meeting will be held at the Palo Verde v27-4p3-11.pdf Room, University of Arizona Agricultural Extension Building; 4341 East Broadway, Ecology and management of morels between Tempe and Phoenix harvested from the forests of western North America. http://www.fs.fed.us/ MARK THIS DATE and TIME: June 11, pnw/publications/pnw_gtr710/ 2009 (Thursday) at 7:15 PM. HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE! Spring 2009 Officers Inside this Issue Volume 18 - No 1 Chester Leathers, PhD President The Arizona Fun-Gi Foray Information 1 is the official newsletter of Larry Morehouse Webmaster Announcements 1 Arizona Mushroom Club (AMC) Odds & Ends 1 and is published tri-annually. Sandy Melgaard Treasurer/ Morels-What to Harvest 2,3 All articles appearing Membership What Not to Harvest 3 may be freely reproduced Where, When, How 4 provided the source and Terry Beckham Foray Coordinator Recipes 5 author are acknowledged. Shelley Watanabe Fungi Editor 2 MORELS What to Harvest figure 3 Morels are the fruiting bodies of species Morels generally are a small to large in the genus Morchella. They are prized mushroom with a cap and stalk. The inte- Black Morels edible mushrooms that fruit, sometimes rior is hollow. The cap is rounded, oblong prolifically, in many forests throughout to cone-shaped and is honeycombed with much of North America and in temper- ridges and pits. It is attached to the stalk figure 4 ate forests globally. Large gaps remain, for nearly all of its length (except for the however, in our knowledge about half-free morel, which is attached for 1/3 Morchella elata, Morcella angus- morels. Their taxonomy is confusing and to 2/3 of it’s length). The stalk is well- ticeps & Morcella conica, The Black many North American species lack valid developed, smooth when young and finely Morel: There are several black morel scientific names. Their biology, nutrition, granular with age. The stalk is off-white, species common to North America. life cycle and reproductive modes are ivory to pale cream in color and the sur- They are extremely variable in appear- unusual and complex. Ecologically, we face layer stretches apart with age so it ance, and generally “morphologically do not yet fully understand how and appears enlarged and wrinkled/pleated. 1,3 inseparable"---which means you can't why some morels fruit prolifically Species variations will be noted in the tell them apart by looking at them. following tree death, wildfire, or other Descriptions that follow. Black Morels as a group are however, forest disturbances. Efforts to cultivate fairly distinguishable. The cap is round morels have only been partially to cone-shaped. The ridges of black successful. Morels fruit from Mexico to morels are pale or brownish at first, but Alaska in western North America. quickly begin to darken and by maturity are dark brown to black. The pits are Morel taxonomy above the species level Yellow Morels usually pale brown to brownish through- is not controversial. However, morel figure-1 out development, but may be somewhat species identification is extremely greenish or pinkish, especially at high problematic for a number of reasons, elevations. The pits and ridges are and with DNA and genetic development primarily vertical. The cap is often the field is still evolving. The literature pointed and elongated to rounded-off or on this topic is technical, sometimes even more or less round. The stalk is contradictory, often narrowly focused, whitish or pale brownish, often some- and potentially compromised by the lack Morcella esculenta, The Yellow and what darker than that of other morel of valid scientific names. More than a 1,3,4 Mountain/Western Blonde Morel: The species. dozen North American species of morels yellow morel is found across North have been identified based on DNA America. It grows in a wide variety of analysis of data collected in the Morel ecosystems; and different species are Data Collection Project. Common names associated with certain trees depending for morels are equally rife with confu- upon the regional area. The cap is sion for the amateur mushroomer. rounded to slightly cone-shape. The pits Variations and overlaps in common and ridges are irregularly arranged, and names occur on the continental level 1,2 the top of the cap is usually not pointy. down to regional and local level. The ridges do not darken with age. When Gray Morels figure-5 young, the pits may be dark (or nearly The information presented here is not A series of photographs illustrating color changes black), contrasting starkly with the pale intended to enter into the fray of in a maturing gray morel. Photographs taken ridges. In age, the pits usually fade until scientific or common names. *A rose by June 25, July 2, and July 9, 2003. they are roughly the same yellowish color any other name....* Common names as the ridges. Both the mountain blond used here are based on what is Morchella tomentosa* and yellow morels occur in western North accepted nomenclature for Arizona and not a recognized scientific name, America, but the mountain blond morel neighboring western states. This The Gray Morel: fuzzy foot, appears to be more commonly found in information is offered to provide the black foot/stocking, burn morel. conifer forests (especially fir, lodgepole, amateur mushroomer with basic or ponderosa pine forests), whereas yellow knowledge to begin hunting edible The Gray morel is found in conifer burn morels are found more often in riparian morels.