False Morel
The false morel appears in spring in the same season as true morels and fools people every year. Instead of a neat honeycomb of pits, its reddish-brown cap is irregularly wrinkled and folded like a brain or a saddle. Cut one open and it is not cleanly hollow: the interior is chambered and stuffed with wispy, cottony tissue, and the cap is not simply joined to the stem at the base as a true morel's is.
Despite the species name esculenta ('edible'), it contains gyromitrin, which the body converts to a rocket-fuel compound (monomethylhydrazine); poisonings range from severe gastrointestinal illness to liver damage and death, and the toxin is volatile enough to affect people through cooking vapours. Learn the pair together: brain-like folds and a stuffed interior mean false morel; an even honeycomb, hollow and attached at the base, means true morel.
Deadly
Contains gyromitrin (metabolised to monomethylhydrazine), which can cause vomiting, liver failure, and death; the toxin is even released in cooking steam. The classic spring double for true morels. Tell them apart: the false morel's cap is wrinkled and brain-like and its inside is chambered and cottony, while a true morel is a regular honeycomb, fully hollow, and attached at the base.
True morels (Morchella americana and other Morchella spp.)
Decomposes conifer litter in sandy woodland soils. Its ecological role is unremarkable — its importance to a gardener is purely as a spring hazard to recognise.
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