Morels

[dwheeler at teleport.com]

In article <19990417075259.11152.00001535 at ng-ca1.aol.com>,
  basidium at aol.com (Basidium) wrote:
> Have you seen the World's Record morel?  WAY over a foot tall...
>
> http://members.aol.com/basidium/ultima.html
>
> Best wishes,
>
> David W. Fischer
> Writer ~ Editor ~ Proofreader ~ Graphic Designer/Typographer
> Coauthor, "Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America"
> and "Mushrooms of Northeastern North America"
> E-mail: basidium at aol.com
> Website: http://www.fischer.nu
>
Sorry David. But Oregon morels (kind of Texas morels, I guess) get quite a bit
over a foot tall. Several years ago, a commercial picker brought in a 17-inch
specimen found under Black cottonwoods near the Columbia River to a collection
station I stopped at. We all measured the mushroom in question: and that was
with a _very_ short stem. The picker said, and I have no doubt to disbelieve
him, that another specimen of 22-inches has been collected the same time.

To me, the interesting thing about these morels was not that they were so
tall, but that they were so light-weight: the 17-inch specimen weighed less
than 2 ounces, and was less than 2-3 inches in diameter. Economically, it was
much nicer to find a cespitose clump of Morchella crassipes (which I was
showing off) that weighed more than 1 pound but had only 8 sporocarps, that I
recall.

I don't think that cluster was even a record for that year (1990, I believe).

Daniel B. Wheeler
http://www.oregonwhitetruffles.

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