Morel hunt  June 16, 2007    First spring/summer after the tripod area fire  Loup Loup, Okanogan, Northern Cascades, Washington State - USA	Link to MushRoaming - Mushroom Tours to Tibet   Cordyceps & Morel Tour to Tibet    late May 2008   Link to Paper on Morels in Tibet Morels in our yard in Kirkland Diese Seite auf Deutsch
Looking from Beaver Mountain East onto the main chain of the North Cascades. Burned Lodgepole pines (Pinus contorta) and Ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa) in foreground. Photo: Looking from Beaver Mountain, Okanogan National Forest, Northern Cascades, Washington State, 1550m (5200 ft), June 16, 2007  © Daniel Winkler	A black morel, as it is called by the commercial pickers, is growing right next to a piece of wood charred during last years 60,000 acres tripod area fire. Taxonomy of western morels is still in a flux, so I hesitate to attach a species name, but it should fall into the complex of "burn" or "fire" morels that was lumped previously as Morchella angusticeps, M. elata or M. conica, fire or black morel (Pilz et al. 2007, p.20). Interestingly it seems that fire morels need higher temperatures  to fruit than regular morels.   Photo: Beaver Mountain, Okanogan National Forest, Northern Cascades, Washington State, 1710m (5600 ft), June 16, 2007 © Daniel Winkler
	In these completely charred areas we hardly found any morels. Photo: Beaver Mountain, Okanogan National Forest, Northern Cascades, Washington State, 1550m (5200 ft), June 16, 2007   © Heidi Schor
An old growth stand of Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) right next to the fire. Photo: Beaver Mountain, Okanogan National Forest, Northern Cascades, Washington State, 1550m (5200 ft), June 16, 2007  © Daniel Winkler	A selection of the morels we picked. Clearly identifiable are the "gray morels" or "fuzzy foot morel", whose stalk is dark gray when young [close up below]. It becomes lighter with maturing, but remains fuzzy. We found much fewer "grays" to stay with the picker terminology, than "blacks". Most of the morels found were blacks, which are much thinner walled and typical for past-burn mass fruitings. The big morels in this picture are about 15-20cm (6-8in).  Photo:  June 17, 2007  © Daniel Winkler These young gray morels are about 4-6cm tall (1.3-2.4 in). It has been described as Morchella atrotomentosa (Moser) Bride, a well fitting name, since atro means black and tomentosa fuzzy. Unfortunately according to Pilz et al. 2007 the name is not valid. Kuo (2006) called it the fuzzy foot morel, since color change is part of the maturing process. Photo:  June 17, 2007  © Daniel Winkler

Post-fire fallen Douglas fir needles help to bring out the 7 small morels. Photo: Beaver Mountain, Okanogan National Forest, Northern Cascades, Washington State, 1680m (5500 ft), June 16, 2007 © Daniel Winkler	A burned out root stock of a conifer. The area is full of holes from completely burned out stem bases. In this whole 2 morels a fruiting. Photo:  Beaver Mountain, Okanogan National Forest, Northern Cascades, Washington State, 1710m (5600 ft), June 16, 2007 © Daniel Winkler
A morel next to a branch of a two-needle pine, possibly lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta). This is an older gray morel (Morchella atrotomentosa) - they get much lighter in age [see Karl Olson series of pictures of the same specimen over 2 weeks (in Pilz et al. 2007, p. 21)]. At first we erroneously thought this must be a blond morel. Photo: Beaver Mountain, Okanogan National Forest, Northern Cascades, Washington State, 1710m (5600 ft), June 16, 2007 © Daniel Winkler	Remnants of a short, but fierce sleet shower collected in a small depression around a black morel. Photo: Beaver Mountain, Okanogan National Forest, Northern Cascades, Washington State, 1710m (5600 ft), June 16, 2007 © Daniel Winkler
Two black morels right on the edge of burned and unburned ground. In the background Kinnikinnick (meaning mixture in Algonquian, the language of the Delaware Indians) or common bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, Heather Family-Ericaceae). Photo: Beaver Mountain, Okanogan National Forest, Washington State, 1550m (5200 ft), June 16, 2007  © Daniel Winkler	Heidi and I showing off 7 hours of picking and at least as many years of supply of dried morels if we keep up the frequency of cooking them in the past. We had rubbed our hats with mosquito repellents which worked great to keep the swarms of mosquitoes away from our heads. Photo: Beaver Mountain, Okanogan National Forest, Northern Cascades, Washington State, 1550m (5200 ft), June 16, 2007  © Daniel Winkler

A sign informing commercial mushroom hunters on areas open and closed to picking in the state forest. Leaflets were available in several languages including English, Spanish, Laotian and Khmer (Many commercial pickers are from the Thai, Laotian, Hmong and other SE Asian communities).   Burns attract commercial mushroom hunters, since the morel harvest is bound to be good in the first year after the burn. The income from commercial mushroom picking will not make you rich at all. There are several reasons for deciding to make a living from mushroom picking. For immigrant communities the great advantage is that there is no real disadvantage due to language barriers. Many American-born collectors rather make a living outdoors being their own bosses than in a hierarchical workplace situation. However, the price of relative freedom in the woods requires contentment with very basic living conditions and very meager money.  Photo: Near Highway 2, Loup Loup, Okanogan National Forest, Northern Cascades, Washington State, 1250m, 16.6 2007  © Daniel Winkler

Jason shows 4 hours of hunting. He wasn't very excited about his haul. He thought he was the first one on this road, but it was picked over a week ago. Thus, not many good-sized morels were to be found. However, he liked the gray morels, since they are double-walled and thus heavier. Alas, they are much rarer than the regular burn morels. Mushroom buyers were paying $8 a pound that day. My friend John Goldman checked the morel prices in Seattle the next Monday. At Whole Foods one pound of fresh morels was sold for $40, but at the Farmers market PSMS member Jeremy Faber sold them for much more reasonable $18 per pound. PS: Jason drop me a note, when you have a chance Photo: Beaver Mountain, Okanogan National Forest, Northern Cascades, Washington State, 1550m, 16.6 2007  © Daniel Winkler

Skyrocket or Scarlet Gilia (Gilia aggregata = Ipomopsis aggregata) in the Phlox family (Polemoniaceae) photographed before a Penstemon on the way out above Loup Loup Camp Ground. Photo: Near Highway 2, Okanogan National Forest, Northern Cascades, Washington State, 1250m, June 16, 2007  © Daniel Winkler

March 30, 2007	March 22, 2008	March 22, 2008 These morels are not taller than 2cm. We will watch them very closely, before we facilitate spore disposal through ingestion.
A black morel that popped up in our yard in Kirkland, Washington, last week of March, 2007. Interestingly, the fruiting body grew on top of card box material that was laid out to suppress weed growth. Taxonomy of morels is not very clear. It could be  Morchella angusticeps, M. elata or M. conica.  The closet description is on Michael Kuo's The Mushroom Expert webpages as Taxon #J "Its cap features vertically arranged pits and ridges that develop a "laddered" appearance (with sunken, horizontal cross-ribs), and its stem is fairly dark when young. MDCP collections have come only from landscaping areas in the Pacific Northwest, suggesting that Taxon J may be an introduced organism."	More or less same spot as the previous year in our yard in Kirkland. These morels are growing on a pile of topsoil we had moved when adding on 5 years earlier. A crab apple tree is about 10m away, I am not sure if there is a connection, but these early morels are reported to have an affinity to apple trees.