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Species Information
Summary: {See also Morels Table.} Morchella tomentosa is distinguished from other morels by the densely tomentose and often black surfaces when young. Features are densely tomentose young ridges that are black to gray or brownish, the ridges eroded or flattened when old, bald pits that vertically elongate by maturity, young stem that is densely tomentose and gray to black, and fruiting at 1000-3400 meters altitude in years following forest fires. Older specimens "may have eroded ridges and paler colors that approximate the colors of M. esculenta-like yellow morels" [Latin name italicized] but these still demonstrate pigmented hairs on ridges and stem surface and can thus be distinguished microscopically (Kuo). The description is derived from Kuo(3) except where noted.
Morchella tomentosa has been found in OR, ID, YT, AK, CO, and MT, (Kuo(3)). Collections of "Morchella atrotomentosa nom. prov." from BC at the Pacific Forestry Centre are likely to represent this species.
Cap: (1.5)3-5cm wide at widest point, (2)3-11cm high (whole fruitbody (4)5-12cm high), "subconic to subcylindric or ovoid", pitted and ridged, "with 18-26 primary vertical ridges and numerous shorter, secondary vertical ridges and transecting horizontal ridges", ridges bluntly rounded when young, when old often flattened or eroded, pits irregularly shaped when young but opening and deepening with development, primarily vertically elongated when mature; ridges "black, silvery black, brownish black, brownish gray, watery gray, brown, or brownish when young" "becoming gray, grayish, pale tan, or whitish" when mature, pits "progressing from gray or nearly black when immature to gray, watery gray, brown, yellowish tan, or nearly white (especially when exposed to prolonged sunlight)" when mature; ridges densely tomentose, pits bald
Flesh: 0.1-0.5cm thick in the hollow cap, in the stem chambered or layered; whitish
Underside: trough between cap and stem about 0.1-0.2cm deep and 0.1-0.2cm wide; sterile inner surface underside whitish, pubescent [downy]
Stem: 2-6cm x 1-4cm, flared slightly to top, often basally clavate or subclavate [club-shaped or somewhat club-shaped]; "densely tomentose and gray to black when young, becoming finely tomentose or nearly glabrous and gray to tan, watery brownish, or nearly white, with brownish tufts of separated mycelium"
Microscopic: spores (15)18-20(22.5) x (7.5)8-12.5(15) microns, elliptic, smooth, contents homogeneous; asci 8-spored, 225-290 x 12.5-20 microns, cylindric, colorless; paraphyses (125)150-175(225) x 5-10(15) microns, cylindric to subclavate, apices rounded to subacute, 2-5 septa, colorless or with brown to brownish homogeneous contents in 2% KOH, residual paraphyses on sterile ridges similar, bundled, colorless or with brown contents; hairs on sterile ridges projecting from residual paraphyses, abundant, 120-250(400) x 7.5-15(25) microns, "variable in shape (cylindric, clavate, subclavate, lageniform, or subcapitate)", with brown to brownish contents in 2% KOH, septate, often with thickened walls; hairs on stem surface abundant, 100-275 x 10-17 microns, cylindric to subclavate, with brown walls in 2% KOH, septate, contents colorless to brownish
Habitat / Range
at altitudes of 1000-3400 meters "in lightly to moderately burned conifer forests" including forests dominated by Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas-fir) on the West Coast and forests dominated by Picea engelmannii (Engelmann spruce) and Abies lasiocarpa (Subalpine Fir) or Pinus contorta (Lodgepole Pine) in the Rocky Mountains; "primarily in years following forest fires, but often appearing in dwindling numbers for several seasons thereafter"; May through August, (Kuo), sometimes appearing "as late as August or even September at high elevations when there has been sufficient moisture", (Beug)
Similar Species
Morchella carbonaria [now synonymized with Morchella eximia], described in 2010 from BC, is similar and also fruits late in the morel season - it has been found under burned cedar (Beug).
