1st Morels of the season!

[jkcmj]

While on a work outing in Central Illinois last Tuesday, I spent my lunch hour in a local city park around Decature, IL checking for mushrooms.  I picked my 1st hat full of the season around one tree. They appear to be in the peak of their season right now.  They are also just starting to find quite a few in Central Iowa now as well.  A couple of cell phone photos to wet your appetite for the season coming!
1st mushroom

1st hat full

A couple extras

[bobbers_down]

Those look great!  Congrats on the first pick of the season, still waiting for a warmup to get them popping around here.

[jkcmj]

Found my 1st morels in SE MN today while turkey hunting.  27 little grays around one tree on a south slope on my way out of the timber.

[jkcmj]

While working down in Cedar Rapids, Iowa today I checked a local city park and came up with a couple of trees producing a bunch.  That's a three state spread now!  I will have to sneak up into WI for a few next!  Sorry for the blurry photos, but I have misplaced my good digital and have to rely on the cell phone..

[HUNTER2]

Never tried one yet. I'm guessing I would be full of poison ive before I was all done.

[jkcmj]

They are really heating up in SE MN right now. I picked 5-10 lbs today in just a few hours of walking. Many were already dried up in the open areas, while the north slopes were barely showing the little grays.




And a false morel...The top on this one looked exactly like a real morel, but the hood gave it away...

[GRIZ]

Don't take my word for it but the last pic looks like a half free morel to me, some call them a half cap. The false morels I have found didn't have a hollow stem.

[GRIZ]

Have only been out a couple times but have had some luck. First time out I got a grocery sack of em and yesterday got half a sack. They are starting to look pretty dried up. About 1/3 of them I didn't even bother harvesting. I've heard one can still take the dry ones and just soak in water and they taste just as good.

[jkcmj]

 Just when I thought I was through finding shrooms for the season, I found over a pound of fresh big ones while fixing pasture fence this afternoon!  What a treat!

[kenhuntin]

I love the pictorial! On a side note do you know the name of the stuff with the heart shapped leaves that the morels grew near? I get alot of that stuff around here and it has pretty purple flowers but it is taking over and pulling it just makes it grow faster. weedbgone envigorates the stuff and round up just seems to suppress it. It pops up in another location.

[jkcmj]

Don't take my word for it but the last pic looks like a half free morel to me, some call them a half cap. The false morels I have found didn't have a hollow stem.

The Mushroom actually appeared to be one of the false morels called Verpa bohemica.  They will have a wringled skin cap on top of the hollow stem, but do not have the clear pits and ridges as the half cap morels.  You can usually tell them by the look on top, but also by the fact that it attaches only at the very top of the stem, instead of half way down the cap(as a  the Half-Cap morel would).  

This particular Verpa appeared to be a half cap from the top(a first for me)until I turned it over and looked inside.  It is possible I was mistaken...but alas, I errored on the side of caution!

[jkcmj]

These two mushrooms can be very similar in appearance, but can be distinguished by the connection point of the cap, and most of the time, there will be some cottony like material attached to inside walls of the stem on the Verpa, but not always that noticeable, especially when they start drying out.

Verpa bohemica(false morel-poisonous)

Morchella semilibera (half cap,half free morel-edible)