Morels in Tibet
Morels are known in many arrears in Tibet as "gugu shamo", the cuckoo mushroom.
 In Chinese morels are referred to as yangdu jun
 , which means "sheep stomach mushroom". |
 A black morel we encountered in Birong Namri. Morels fruit around the same time as caterpillar fungus in the Tibetan areas. They can grow in a variety of habitats. Some are found around willows (Salix spp.) as the one above, but more often they grow around conifers, as the one shown on the left, which this Tibetan lady just had picked an hour ago on a gugu shamo hunt with her friends .
Photos: Birong Namri, Shangerila Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, NW Yunnan, May 30 & 31, 2008 © Daniel Winkler
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In spring morels (Morchella esculenta and other species, possibly Morchella crassipes, angusticeps and conica) are sprouting in the woods on the Tibetan Plateau. The Tibetan name "gugu shamo" alludes to its fruiting season, which coincides with the return of the cuckoo, one of Tibet's best known birds due to its unique and loud call. In Riwoche in 2005, I was awoken by the "coo-koooo coo-koooo" calls from a cuckoo right outside of my room.
Photo: Riwoche / Leiwuqi, Chamdo / Qamdo Prefecture, Tibet AR, June 2005 © Daniel Winkler
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Economically speaking morels are the in the top five most important mushroom in Tibet (for sure after Cordyceps sinensis and Tricholoma matsutake, competing with Sarcodon / Hydnum imbricatum ). Morels are valuable, since they are exported to Europe, mostly Germany and France. Going into export multiplies the value by around factor 10 in comparison to mushrooms collected for the Chinese market. In Kham and in Kongpo I was told that Tibetans traditionally did not care for morels and where told by buyers what to look for.
Photo: Riwoche / Leiwuqi, Chamdo / Qamdo Prefecture, Tibet AR, June 2005 © Daniel Winkler
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 Morels strung for drying. All export is done with dried product.
Photo: Riwoche / Leiwuqi, Chamdo / Qamdo Prefecture, Tibet AR, June 2005 © Daniel Winkler
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 Dried morels laid out on an inlay table in Nyarong. The morel trade commenced in Ganzi the late 1990s, when motorized buyers originally from Yunnan came around and generated a market. Nyarong's morel resources were discovered in 1999.
Photo: Nyarong / Xinlong, Kandze / Ganzi TAP, Sichuan. April 2001
© Daniel Winkler
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Another Roadside Attraction in Kongpo
Mr. He's "Soap Soup"
(following Tibetan tradition, to shorten long words one contracts the first syllable and the last to a new term , thus "soap soup" is short for "Soap stone hot pot black Tibetan chicken Wangla Soup"
 By the way, Mr. He is showing us the morels he had stashed for his patrons. However, I opted for the excellent king boletes. I hope to get there again, for the steinpilze that is, not the chicken feet with the starchy orchid. Photos: Lunang, Pome /Bomi County, Nyingchi / Linzhi Prefecture, Tibet AR, June 2005 © Daniel Winkler
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 Mr. He, originally from Hechuan, Chongqing, owner of a Sichuanese restaurant in Lunang / Lulang. Out of the 10 Chinese restaurants now at this road side stop on the Lhasa- Nyingchi-Chamdo-Chengdu Highway, seven are owned by relatives of Mr. He. He opened the first hot pot restaurant back in 1989 basically in the middle of nowhere. Now the place is renowned for the use of soap stone pots from Metok/ Metuo, which supposedly release precious nutrients. This was started in 1997. The highly praised specialty - few drivers manage to pass by - consists of a chicken soup (see floating foot of the black-skinned chicken, which is a Tibetan specialty) and orchid 'roots' [Chinese Shouzhang Shen, Tibetan: Wang la (dbang lag), Gymnadenia or Habenaria] among other ingredients.
Such a sumptuous and healthy meal needs to be followed by a drink of tempting "yaojiu", Chinese medicinal schnapps, solely drunken for health reasons off course [watch your driver!]. In the center one can recognize the corm-like pseudobulbs of the orchid surrounded by floating caterpillar fungus, Fritillaria bulbs, Gastrodia rhizomes and other tasty stuff. Someone must have stolen the typically floating medicinal snake or poured it by accident with the yaojiu.
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 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
This morel is not growing in Tibet, but the camera that photographed it had been to Tibet, really!
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For great webpages on morels in general and Southeast USA specifically, check out
http://www.morelmushroomhunting.com
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