Summary:
{See also Morels Table.} Morchella prava is the correct name for what was described as Morchella esculentoides. "The species usually can be identified on the basis of its esculenta-like stature and its contorted, asymmetrical and irregular pits and ridges. The pits are highly irregular in outline and size, and the thick, bluntly rounded ridges are less likely to become eroded and sharpened with maturity than the ridges in M. esculentoides"; the cap "often appears like a contorted or somewhat deformed version" of the M. esculentoides cap. Significant microscopic differences from M. esculentoides were not observed although the elements on sterile ridges in specimens studied generally were sparsely scattered or nearly absent, whereas they were easily located in M. esculentoides. (all preceding quotations from Kuo(6) with the Latin italicized). The description is derived from Kuo(6).
The type is from MT, and collections were examined also from ON, SK, MI, and SD, (Kuo(6)). Collections in a molecular study were from BC, MT, and SD, (O''Donnell). It has been found in OR by M. Beug who has seen photographs from ID (pers. comm.).
Cap:
2.0-5.0cm wide at widest point, 3.0-6.0cm high, fruitbody 5.0-10.0cm tall, cap "irregularly shaped but often more or less ovoid with a slightly narrowed or subconic apex", "with 12-18 vertical ridges intersecting a line across the widest portion but with numerous horizontal and oblique ridges as well, along with scattered, sunken, transecting ridges"; ridges thick, "flattened or widely rounded when young" but when old "sometimes becoming sharpened or eroded", ridge color "whitish to pale yellowish or pale tan when young, becoming pale brownish yellow" when mature and "eventually darkening to yellowish brown or reddish brown in places", ridge surface bald or very finely tomentose; pits asymmetric and irregular in outline and size, "gray to dark gray, gray-brown or nearly black when young and often remaining dark for a long time before becoming pale brownish yellow or pale yellowish tan with maturity", pit surface bald or finely tomentose
Flesh:
about 0.1-0.2cm thick in hollow cap, "usually chambered or layered near the base"; whitish
Underside:
head is "adnate at the point of attachment or occasionally attached with an inconsistent, poorly developed sinus"
Stem:
2.5-4.0cm x 1.0-3.0cm wide, "more or less equal above a subclavate to clavate base", "usually developing indistinct ridges and folds near the base"; stem "whitish to pale yellowish, often discoloring reddish brown"; bald or nearly bald
Microscopic:
spores (16)17-21(24) x (8)10-12(13) microns, elliptic to slightly subfusiform, smooth, "contents homogeneous"; asci 8-spored, 200-300 x 15-25 microns, cylindric, colorless; paraphyses 100-175 x 5-12.5 microns, cylindric, septate, colorless to brownish or brown in 2% KOH, "apices generally merely rounded or subclavate but occasionally clavate or subfusiform"; elements on sterile ridges "scattered and infrequent (often difficult to locate or distinguish from paraphyses)", 75-125 x 7.5-25(37.5) microns, colorless to ochraceous, brownish, or brown in 2% KOH, septate, "terminal cell widely cylindrical with a rounded apex, subclavate, clavate, subcapitate, capitate or widely subfusiform"
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