Mushroom Hunting
With Tom Nauman
Last month's article was accompanied by photo of Mark Coulter with a "red ear" mushroom. The "red ear" Mark was holding falls under the generic classification of false morel. While I won't chastise Mark (he obviously knows what he's eating), I will caution the rest of you to know what you're eating. The problem with false morels is that their are about five false morels commonly found in our area. Two are deadly poisonous, two are not recommended, and one is edible. And they are all similar in appearance! False morels are not morels (species morchella) at all, most of them fall under the species name gyromitra. Remember, a true morel is recognized by three factors: it has a sponge cap, it's entirely hollow (stem and cap), and the cap and stem are joined at the base of the cap. None of the false morels combine all three characteristics. The gyromitras are commonly known as: red ear, elephant ear, lorchels, beefsteak, brain, and false morel.
We'll begin with Mark's mushroom, the gyromitra caroliniana. This mushroom has a reddish brown cap that is wrinkled like a brain with folds and pits and usually has seam-like lines along some of the ribs. The stem that is almost pure white. We've seen specimens that weigh several pounds. That's because the stem and cap are solid or almost solid with small chambers. It and it's west coast cousin, the snow morel (gyromitra gigas), are both edible and choice. Most field guides don't recommend eating either because of their similarity to the poisonous members of the species.
The false morel (gyromitra esculenta) also has a reddish brown, brain-like, wrinkled cap. It's stem is white to ivory in color and usually hollow. The cap is solid or chambered. It is deadly poisonous! Having said that, I'll now contradict myself and tell you that I've eaten this mushroom. Vicky and I had the good fortune to have a morel feast at a restaurant in Boyne City, Michigan with Stan Tekiela, author of "Start Mushrooming"; his wife, Kathy; Roger Thurow, the 1993 National Grand Champion Morel Mushroom Hunter; and his wife, Leila. Several restaurants in the Boyne City area import nationally known chefs for the National Grand Championship weekend. Our's featured a seven course morel dinner. Much to our surprise, the mushrooms in Stan's soup were gyromitra esculenta! After talking to the chef as to how they were prepared several of us sampled. It seems that if cooked or fried thoroughly in an open container the poison escapes from this particular mushroom. Don't breathe the fumes! It's not really that much a cause for concern, cashews are poisonous when raw also. Remember, we only sampled - we didn't pig-out. A word about Latin names, gyromitra translates to "round capped" which is true for this mushroom. Esculenta translates to "edible" which is completely contradictory.
The gyromitra brunnea, or "brown false morel" has one or several saddle-shaped, light to reddish brown growths for a cap which are strongly wrinkled. It's not recommended for consumption. It's cousin, gyromitra infula, is deadly poisonous and very similar in appearance. It typically has only one saddle-like growth and therefore is commonly called the "hooded false morel". Both of these mushrooms have a hollow stalk. A mushroom hunting friend has eaten brown false morels all his life without any apparent ill effects. The toxin in gyromitra is monomethylhydrazine (MMH). MMH is a carcinogenic compound used in the manufacture of rocket fuel and is very volatile. It's effects seem to be cumulative. In other words, the toxin stays in your body and you won't have any problem until you reach your body's level of intolerance. And you may not even know it was caused by mushrooms! We're keeping a close eye on our friend who doesn't consume these anymore.
Lastly, I want to discuss morchella semilibera or the half-free morel. (It's the picture at the far right of our home page) This guy is probably the most misunderstood mushroom of all time. What you know it as probably can't be repeated in a family column like this, but from the names I'll list I'm sure you'll figure it out. It's called the: penis head, dog penis, spearpoint, and witch's hat among others. We reviewed a video last spring to possibly add it to the products in our catalog. After five minutes of viewing we knew we couldn't sell it except as how not to hunt morels. But, that's another column. The reason I mention it now is toward the end of the video the hunter found some half-free morels. His response was "Them's is p-----heads. They're poisonous. Just kick 'em over." At the Illinois State Morel Mushroom Hunting Championship auction in May, someone brought four bags of the half-free morel to sell. A rather loud young woman who looked like she had picked a ton of mushrooms in the last week alone, exclaimed, "You can't eat those. Those are p-----heads". Ten years ago I would have agreed with both of these people. That's what I had been taught.
Nothing could be further from the truth! The half-free morel is a true morel and although not as tasty as other members of the species (my opinion), it certainly is not poisonous! It does have two look-alikes in the verpa species (verpa conica and verpa bohemica). The verpa species don't have a hollow stem, it's filled with a fibrous material. The cap and stem are connected near the top of the cap on the verpa. The half-free is connected about half-way up the cap and that's how it gets it's name. The verpa don't have true pits in the cap. They're more like folds. The verpa conica is edible and the verpa bohemica is edible with caution.
There are probably 10,000 different kinds of mushrooms. Only about 10
of those will flat-out kill you. Petersen's Mushroom Field Guide lists 150
edible mushrooms. All of those in between will either make you sick enough
to wish you were dead or are unknown. The scientific community is looking
for adventurous individuals to test the unknown ones! Whenever we are not
sure about a particular mushroom, we check it in as many as five field guides.
If we're still not sure we follow an old adage - When in doubt, throw it
out!
|
Morel and other mushrooms products |
A state by state listing of sightings of our favorite fungi - since 1998 |
Articles about mushroom hunting |
||
Communications
Write us at: Morel Mania, R.R. 1 - Box 42, Magnolia, IL 61336 (USA)
Phone: 309-364-3319
Fax: 309-364-2960
email: email: Morel Mania
© 2003, Morel Mania