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Species Information
Summary: {See also Morels Table.} Features include conic cap with vertical ridges, frequent sunken horizontal ridges, and pits, the ridges dark brown to nearly black, the pits primarily vertically elongated, pale tan to brownish yellow, and finely tomentose; stem equal or sometimes basally subclavate, whitish and finely mealy with whitish granules, the ridges and folds not prominent; trough between cap and stem not deep; fruiting outside of burn areas especially under hardwoods, and microscopic characters. According to Kuo(6), this species corresponds to PS A (natural black morel) in Pilz(2), and to Morchella angusticeps in the 1995 edition of Weber(3). The description is derived from Kuo(6) except where noted.
The collections examined are from OR; Michael Beug''s attached photographs from WA. Although not specifically documented yet, this species is likely to occur in BC and more widely in the Pacific Northwest.
Cap: 2.5-3.5cm wide at widest point, 3-5cm high (fruitbody 4.5-9cm high), conic, "16-22 primary vertical ridges and occasional shorter, secondary vertical ridges, with frequent sunken, transecting horizontal ridges"; ridges bald or finely tomentose, "dark brown to nearly black, blackening with maturity and when dried", "flattened when young but sometimes becoming sharpened or eroded" when old; pits primarily vertically elongated, pale tan to brownish yellow, finely tomentose
Flesh: 0.1-0.2cm thick in the hollow cap, "becoming layered and chambered" near base of stem; whitish
Underside: trough between cap and stem about 0.2-0.3cm wide and 0.2-0.3cm deep; sterile inner surface of cap whitish, pubescent
Stem: 2-3.5cm x 0.8-1.5cm, "more or less equal, or sometimes basally subclavate", "developing fine ridges, or a few folds near the base, with maturity"; whitish; "finely mealy with whitish granules"
Microscopic: spores 22-36(40) x 14-20(25) microns, elliptic, smooth, contents homogeneous; asci 8-spored, 225-300 x 17.5-22.5 microns, cylindric, colorless in 2% KOH; paraphyses 150-250 x 7.5-17.5 microns, cylindric, colorless in 2% KOH, "apices rounded to subclavate, clavate, or widely fusiform", septate; elements on sterile ridges 75-160 x 12.5-27.5 microns, with colorless to brownish contents in 2% KOH, septate, "terminal cell clavate (sometimes strikingly so), subcapitate or widely subfusiform"
Habitat / Range
under hardwoods, including Arbutus menziesii and Quercus spp., probably to be expected in non-burned conifer forests; April, (Kuo(6)), also found in landscape bark and an adjacent lawn in a residential yard in Pullman, WA, (McCotter(1), referring to Carris et al. 2015 in press at Mycologia)
Similar Species
Morchella snyderi is 1) more common, 2) paler when young, 3) regularly lacunose and fluted in the stem even when young, 4) has a less distinct sinus between stem and cap, 5) has a tendency to grow clustered, whereas M. brunnea grows scattered, and 6) grows with conifers, whereas M. brunnea favors hardwoods. According to M. Beug (pers. comm.), Mel-19 is very similar but has darker pits and is associated with Engelmann spruce.
