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Characteristics of the Common Morel Mushroom

The common morel mushroom is also known as the common morel, yellow morel, spongy and land fish. The common morel mushroom is not very common and it often takes a lot of time to find a good patch. The common morel is among the most distinct edible wild mushrooms. It is most frequently found under and around dead and dying elm trees, overgrown apple trees and healthy tulip trees. Among the outstanding characteristics of the common morel are its shape, strong taste, its very recent evolution from a yeast, its ability to produce ascospores and a poor adaptation to soil.

  1. Evolution

    • The common morel mushroom is highly unusual in the sense that it has evolved so recently from a yeast that it has yet to acquire a higher degree of structural complexity. This is considered an extreme evolution and illustrates how rapid changes occur. The physiology of the mushroom is chaotic and scrambled, and the morphology is not yet stable. Though common morels sometime grow into stable balloonlike structures with smooth surfaces in artificial growing media, their structures in natural habitats remain marked with ridges and pits that differ between regions.

    Ascospores

    • The common morel produces ascospores, which means that the spores of the mushroom are located within the tissue and are propelled out with a force. This is what creates the spongelike appearance of the morel mushroom. However, the texture is not spongy but hollow, brittle and rubbery. Unlike other mushrooms, the common morel breaks and crumbles easily. This is another inadequacy stemming from its recent evolution. Morels are very fragile and need to be handled with care.

    Poor Soil Adaptation

    • Since the common morel is the physiological counterpart of yeasts, it is not as well adapted to conditions in the soil as other mushrooms. This contributes to their general environmental fragility and poor dissemination properties. The problem of dissemination, coupled with rapid evolution, has led to the wide differences in the appearance of the common morel from area to area. In fact, there are so many different types of appearances of the common morel that it keeps their issue of nomenclature in a state of perpetual confusion. The most common shape is the cylindrical and cone. The pencil-shaped morels are among the rarer types.

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