Rick's Ramblings

Monday, May 17, 2004

In Search of the Black Morel

From all the reading I’ve done, it seems like the cabin property would be a great place to find wild black morel mushrooms in the Spring. So, for the past two weekends I’ve searched likely places, but with no luck.

Of course, I have no idea what the likely places are since I’ve never found one!

The cabin is at about 8600 feet in altitude with hills and valleys surrounding it that are probably beween 8200 and 9000 feet. The woods are a mixture of aspen, pine and fir trees. The bottom of the valley where the Spring creek runs also has willows and other brush.

The snow is mostly melted, with a few large drifts on the Northerly sides of hills remaining. The pasque flowers are blooming. The aspens have just leafed out.

All of these things seems to be signs of the right location and time.

In many of the photos I’ve seen, the mushroom is next to a Fairy Slipper or Shooting Star (wild flower). These have not yet bloomed, so maybe it is still too early.

I plan to keep looking every weekend that I am up there. If anyone reading this has experience in finding black morels in the mountains, I’d love to hear from you!

Comments:

1. I’ve now searched for the illusive black morel three weekends in a row, with no success. Either I just can’t see them, it is not the right time yet, or they don’t grow on the property (at least this year). I’ll keep up my search through mid June.

   I have found a “false morel”. Quite poisonous, but easily distiguished from a true morel.

   I also found what I believe were oyster mushrooms this last weekend. But, still not brave enough to eat them without professional confirmation. I’ll start photographing everything I find before I pick it, then taking specimens to the Colorado Mycological Society meetings I attend in Denver on the 2nd Monday of each month for identification.

   Posted by Rick  on  05/24/2004  at  10:41 PM

2. Still no morels after another couple of hours of searching on May 28th and 30th. (It rained and snowed on the 29th.) I’ve seen reports of black morels found in Colorado at around 8000 feet starting around the 21st of May. Supposedly, the timing is best when pasque flowers are in bloom and aspen leaves are just coming out.

   We’ve had pasque flowers for 3 weeks, although new ones continue to bloom where the snow is melting. And, the aspen leaves are now quite large. So, the season may have passed me by.

   Note my other post though on finding a kind of “false morel” that gives me hope that there may still be a season.

   Posted by Rick  on  06/03/2004  at  02:24 PM

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