Eastern black morel

What it is

The eastern black morel is Morchella angusticeps, a fungus of the Morchellaceae. Charles Horton Peck described it in 1879. It belongs to the black morels, the Elata clade, which is the sister group of the yellow morels.

The name took its present form in 2012. A revision of North American morels then described nine black-morel species and fixed M. angusticeps to the larger, widely distributed eastern species. Before that revision, the species was often called M. elata, a name some sources now restrict to Europe.

Where and when it grows

The species is found across eastern North America, east of the Rocky Mountains. It grows alone, scattered or in groups under hardwoods, including white ash, green ash and tulip tree, and Peck's type-locality notes describe sandy soil along woodland borders and in open places. The sources date its fruiting to March through May.

The sources reviewed record no Asian distribution for this species, and none is claimed here.

Identification

Morphologically, the eastern black morel is very hard to separate from several western North American black morels that grow in conifer burn sites. Its ridges and pits darken as the morel matures, and it has the cap-to-stem groove typical of the black morels.

A smaller, similar black morel, M. septentrionalis, occurs in northeastern North America. Telling the species apart, and telling any morel from a false morel, needs a specialist's examination; a photograph or a description alone does not settle it.

Edibility and safety

The 1879 description is the only food statement found, and it calls the plant edible as a historical note. The sources reviewed give no current edibility verdict, no cooking requirement and no raw-consumption warning for this species, and none is given here.

The sources do not support eating any morel gathered in the wild on the strength of this page. Anyone gathering the eastern black morel should have the specimen identified by a qualified mycologist and should follow a tested preparation.

Open questions

No dated food tradition for this species was found beyond Peck's remark, and no regional use is recorded in the sources reviewed. Its Asian and European distribution, its preparation and its toxicity are not established by the sources checked for this page.