I have not personally found any morels yet this year, but here’s a little primer to get you excited about morel season. These are Ascomycete mushrooms that tend to fruit in the spring. True morels (Morchella) tend to fruit in association with their host tree when the soil hits 50-60F after sustained cold periods (winter). As far as I understand it, most Morchella are not ectomycorrhizal, but instead live as asexual anamorphic (1n) endophytes within the tissue of their host tree (part of the trees microbiome), while forming sclerotia on the roots. When the host tree dies the sclerotia grows out mycelium, which goes dormant over the winter. In the spring, the mycelium activates, sucking up all the available nitrogen and forming the sexual teleomorphic phase we know as morel mushrooms. This complicated life cycle is part of why it can be so difficult to cultivate morels. . There thousands of species of morels, but they fall into 3 main classes: black/grey morels, blonde morels, and landscape morels. The blacks are more common on the west coast with fire, the blondes are more common across the Midwest/east coast, while landscape morels appear to grow saprotrophically and can randomly pop up in woodchips virtually anywhere. . If you want to learn more about morels and how to hunt them, check out my “Morels On the Mind” episode 15 of the Fascinated By Fungi Podcast. . . . . #morel #morels #morelmushrooms #morchella #oddlysatisfying #opinel #morelseason #mushroomasmr #tappingasmr #asmrtapping