If you are at all like me, you can’t wait for the month of May. By far, it’s a month that has so much to offer a nature nut like myself. It’s a time of birth and bloom. Woodlands are filled with spring flowers such as hepatica, bloodroot, trout lily, spring beauty and one of my personal favorites–trilliums.
While many of the migrating birds have already returned to the northland by the beginning of May, there are many more to come. Migrating shorebirds and warblers migrate during the month of May. And no backyard bird watcher can deny the splendor and excitement when the baltimore orioles and ruby-throated hummingbirds return to our gardens during this wonderful month of May.
However, the month of May can have its dark side. A deep lurking illness that remains hidden throughout the rest of the year. A disease that can cause the most normal person to act out in strange and bizarre behaviors. There is no cure for this malady of May. What is this plague upon our woodlands—MOREL MADNESS!!
That’s right, run for cover, lock the doors and bar the windows, its morel mushroom time again. If you feel a fever and an over-whelming desire to crash through the woods in search of this elusive fungus, then you can be certain that the morel madness bug has bitten you. The only cure for morel madness is a couple days searching your local woodland for this spongy devil.
Depending upon which expert you talk to, there are up to 10 species of morels (Morchella sp.) and fortunately all are edible. However there are several species of mushroom that appear similar to the morel which are not edible. So, for safety sake, lets go over some general rules to keep you safe if you succumb to the morel mushroom sickness.
Morels grow in a short window of time, usually for a couple weeks during the month of May. Many mushroom hunters use the blooming of wildflowers to signal when the conditions are right for the morels. It is said that when the Trilliums are blooming or when the Lilac bushes are blooming is when the morels are up and ready to be plucked. That means right now.
Morels have hollow stems and caps. One of the safety checks is to cut your morel mushrooms in half, lengthwise to inspect the interior. A morel will be completely hollow like a straw inside. If there is any cottony material within it’s not a morel. The cap of the morel is connected directly to the stem. This means the cap shouldn’t hang over the cap like a typical mushroom.
Morels always grow on the ground. It’s a fungus that breaks down dead plant material, called saprophytic. If you think you found a morel and it’s growing on a log or stump, it’s not a morel.
The cap or top of the morel is sponge-like (some would say brain-like) and is covered with pits and ridges. Also, morels don’t have any gills like the typical button mushroom.
I have some advice for anyone who hasn’t been out morel hunting. Don’t do it!! It will quickly take over your life. Once you start hunting for these elusive fungi there is no turning back. Before you know it you’re life will be in shambles. First you will start to neglect your family, than you will start to call in sick to work just to hunt for the morels. And before you know it your life is ruined. There is no cure for morel fever, so do yourself a favor. Stay home and paint your house. You’ll thank me in the end. For me, its too late, I will probably be unemployed by the end of the month.
Until next time…I hope.