Yellow Morel

The yellow morel (Morchella esculenta) is a prized edible fungus whose honeycomb-patterned, hollow cap appears in spring in woodlands and orchards. Despite decades of effort, it is difficult to cultivate reliably.

🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Yellow Morel in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Opisthokonta lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.

Morels are ascomycetes. Their spores develop in microscopic sacs (asci) lining the pits of the cap, rather than on gills. The fruiting body is the visible reproductive structure of a fungus that otherwise lives as a network of hyphae in the soil.

Morels often fruit in large numbers the spring after a forest fire, and foragers follow burns. The reasons are still being studied, and may involve a change in the fungus's relationship with trees, nutrient release or reduced competition.

Raw morels contain compounds that cause gastrointestinal illness and must be cooked. They should not be confused with false morels (Gyromitra), which contain gyromitrin, a toxin that can be seriously poisonous.