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Key Features
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- Cap round to cone-shaped or like a Christmas tree, honeycombed with pits and ridges.
- Pits fairly dark (olive-brown, dark gray, black, or reddish-brown), at least when mature.
- Ridges colored like the pits or darker (sometimes black).
- Cap completely intergrown with the stalk (joined to it along its full length).
- Entire mushroom hollow.
- Stalk without a sack or cup at base.
Other Features: Medium-sized to large; stalk white or tinged gray or, in one variety, pinkish or reddish, often with small warts; odor not obnoxious
Where: On ground in many habitats, but especially under mountain conifers in recently logged or burned areas; widespread and sometimes abundant, especially in the spring.
Edibility: Among the most highly prized of all mushrooms, delicious fresh or dried. It should always be cooked. Note: Black morels blend so well with their surroundings that, without an accurate "search image:' seekers quickly become "demoralized. There is a great deal of variation in size, shape, pattern, and color, as the photos show. We don't know whether these varieties are distinct species, but we do know that they're all edible!
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