Yellow Morel

Yellow Morel, also called White Morel and American Blond Morel, is a common, easily recognized mushroom. Morels are one of the “Foolproof Four”, the four most easily identified mushrooms. It is found growing alone, scattered, or clustered on the ground under hardwoods, often poking through leaf litter.

The cap is hollow; usually egg-shaped with a blunt, cone-shaped tip; 1¼″ to 4¼″ long; and ¾″ to 2⅜″ wide. Sometimes it is round, cone-shaped, or irregular in shape. It is deeply pitted with irregularly shaped and randomly oriented pits. The edges of the pits are broadly angled, not sharp. The overall color of the cap is yellowish-brown. When young the cap is shallowly pitted, the ridges are yellow or whitish, and the pits are grayish-brown or dark brown. When mature the cap is deeply pitted and the ridges are the same color or slightly paler than the pits. The ridges do not darken or turn black with age. The margin of the cap is attached directly to the stalk but it is often creased at that point and may appear unattached.

The stalk is usually ⅜″to 2″ long, and ⅜″to 1″thick, usually shorter than the cap. In favorable conditions it may get much longer with age. It is hollow; whitish, pale yellowish-brown, or tan; and usually granular.

False Morel (Gyromitra esculenta) surface is folded, not pitted. The cap is not completely fused to the stalk. The stalk is not hollow. It is poisonous.

A wide variety of habitats, but especially in deciduous forests under a hardwood tree.

May

Sources

4, 7, 24, 26, 29, 30, 77.

Common

Recent molecular phylogenetic analyses of the genus Morchella showed that with two exceptions, the species endemic to Europe are restricted to Europe, and the names applied to those species could not be applied to North American morels. The two exceptions occur in both in Europe and Asia, but not in North America.

This species was formerly knows as Morchella esculenta, a species common in both Europe and the United States. A recent taxonomic revision of Morchella in North America (Kuo et al., 2012) renamed the North American morels previously known as M. esculenta as M. esculentoides.

A later molecular phylogenetic analysis of the true morels of North America (Richard et al., 2015) showed Morchella esculentoides to be s synonym of Morchella americana. The most common Esculenta Clade
yellow morel in North America is now Morchella americana.

Following the separation of the North American true morels from those of Europe, several new common names have been adopted for the most common North American yellow morel, including American Blond Morel and American Yellow Morel. The name White Morel is used by iNaturalist, but it has not been widely adopted. Most sources retained the common name Yellow Morel. The name Gray Morel was misapplied to morels with gray caps and nearly black pits, but these are immature Yellow Morels.

Morchella esculentoides (Yellow Morel)
Allen Chartier

Morchella esculentoides The White Morel
Jack Skrceny

The Mushroom Whisperer's
Jack Skrceny

Morel Mushroom (Ascomycetes: Morchella esculentoides)
Carl Barrentine

Morel mushrooms Morchella esculentoides
chefjoshuaj

Location: St. Cloud, MN

Location: Pennington Co Minnesota

I just check this area yesterday and not a sign.  Today, a couple of Morels freshly popping up.

Yes, that is Poison Ivy