Subject: Morchella and Gyromitra

From: [email-masked] (Michael A. Dritschel)
Date: 2 May 1996 20:06:07 GMT

The subject line is a list of things I found while out mushroom
hunting yesterday at Shades State Park (west of Indianapolis).  I had
some comments about the first and a few questions regarding the
latter and thought I'd lump them all into one post.

Most of my mushroom collecting experience has been in Virginia (near
Charlottesville).  It appears that the morel season is several weeks
later here (as might be expected).  Yesterday I collected 16 morels,
equally divided between Morchella semilibra and M. conica (or
M. elata?---I find keying out morels difficult).  It was just enough
to make a nice omelette last night.  Based on my Virginia mushroom
collecting experiences, these are the earlier morels, and I would
expect to find other species such as M. esculenta over the next week
or two.

I had some questions about a Gyromitra I found.  Alone it probably
weighed as much as all of the morels combined.  I was trying to
identify more precisely since I would like to try it if it is edible.
The description is very close to that of G. gigas as far as the color
and stature are concerned.  In addition it has the convoluted cross
section in the stem.  However there are other Gyromitras with this
property, and this one was found growing next to, though not attached
to, a decaying oak branch in a deciduous forest in the east (as
opposed to near a snow bank in the west).  Other gyromitras with
similar properties which I've found descriptions of in various books
are G. korfii in Smith and Weber's the Mushroom Hunter's Field Guide
and G. caroliniana in the Peterson Field Guide to Mushrooms by
McKnight and McKnight.  The latter book mentions a seam like fusion
line along some ribs for G. caroliniana, which the specimen I
collected has.  In addition, I did a spore print, and examined these
under a microscope.  While I don't have anything to measure the spore
size, they are elliptical with an aspect ratio of about two to one.
The surfaces of the spores appear to be finely reticulated, or at
least warty.  Some have small protuberences at the ends of the major
axis (I don't know if this would correspond with the term
"uniguttulate" which McKnight and McKnight use, since this is not
defined in their glossary).  Overall, I would tend to identify what I
collected as G. caroliniana.  Anyway, in the remarks on this species,
McKnight and McKnight say that it appears to be rare and not well
understood, and that most collections of it are other species that
have been misidentified (so presumably I would be in good company if I
did not get it right).  Any suggestions in pinpointing the
identification would be appreciated.

-- 
Michael A. Dritschel          [email-masked]

Department of Mathematics
Mathematical Sciences Building
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana  47907-1395

(317)-494-1942