First Morel mushroom of the year (for me)

This telemacro photo was taken yesterday on a very last-minute, totally unexpected trip out to Bow Valley Provincial Park. By 11:00 pm the previous evening, I still wasn't sure if I was going to be ready in time and also because I had only had about an hour and a half the sleep the night before that. The thought of going out there on a beautiful, sunny day was just too tempting and, after less than three hours sleep that night, I was up and ready to go the next morning. Today had to be a time for catching up on a little of the lost sleep this week, which is why I am posting so late today.

If I hadn't gone yesterday, I would have missed this find (not by me) and I know I would have been so disappointed. I haven't seen a Morel mushroom for several years and this absolutely made my day. The five friends I went with are all specialists in their fields of fungi, lichens, mosses and liverworts, so not only did they enjoy our day, but I did, too. They have special permits to collect specimens for their work, so I made the most of it by taking a telemacro shot. It was growing in such a "cluttered" place, that photos were difficult to get, though of course I did take several of it growing in place before it was "pulled". This year probably isn't going to be much good for fungi, as everywhere is bone dry, with a hot, dry summer in the forecast. The temperature this day got up to 22C.

"Morchella, the true morels, is a genus of edible mushrooms closely related to anatomically simpler cup fungi. These distinctive mushrooms appear honeycomb-like in that the upper portion is composed of a network of ridges with pits between them. The ascocarps are prized by gourmet cooks, particularly for French cuisine. Commercial value aside, morels are hunted by thousands of people every year simply for their taste and the joy of the hunt.

Morels have been called by many local names; some of the more colorful include dryland fish, because when sliced lengthwise then breaded and fried, their outline resembles the shape of a fish; hickory chickens, as they are known in many parts of Kentucky; and merkels or miracles, based on a story of how a mountain family was saved from starvation by eating morels. In parts of West Virginia, they are known as molly moochers. Due to the partial structural and textural similarity to some species of the Porifera sponges, a common name for any true morel is sponge mushroom. Genus Morchella is derived from morchel, an old German word for mushroom, while morel itself is derived from the Latin maurus meaning brown." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morchella