Three morels in a week

I met three species of the genus Morchella in the 13th week of the year. On March 31, I photographed M. importuna in the city, which is a mushroom that grows once on pine bark chips. It got its scientific name from its surprising appearance. It has the same good and unique aroma as its relatives, but it is difficult to collect mushrooms in an urban environment due to pollution. I also looked for other morels in the city, because M. vulgaris and M. semilibera also live in a housing estate, but I haven't seen their developing fruiting bodies yet. But thanks to the surprise rains of the week, the habitat patch was sufficiently soaked, they will definitely be there in a few days.

During today's mushroom tour, we found M. semilibera for the first time. The four of us walked around the castle park. I won't tell you which ones, because unfortunately there are greedy mushroom collectors. Due to the lack of community feeling and respect for nature, human greed dominates them and such people take everything! For example, today's other crumb was completely picked off by an elderly couple in a larger habitat. Well, they were there, everything is free for them. The mushroom is in a nature reserve, so the guard has also seen traces of their activity, and zero tolerance will soon come into effect. Because it is still forgivable if the mushroom picker picks up a few fruiting bodies from the "rare" mushroom for tasting, but to pick everything! No, especially in a protected part!!

M. steppicola is a real specialty because, unlike its forest relatives, it really lives in the open air among the grass. The species arrived from the eastern steppe and indicates the forest-steppe in Hungary. Fortunately, I know exactly where to look and was able to show it to my students in another patch of habitat. Of the 6-8 fruiting bodies, we only picked one, which one of us took home to taste. It was the first time he had met the morel, so it was understandable that he wanted one. We just took photos of the rest. The fruiting bodies of M. semilibera were still very small, they were just starting to grow. In a week, they will be of pickable size.
It's great that spring mushroom aces can grow this year thanks to the surprise rains.