LBM found growing trailside. Fiberous brown cap, slightly orange-ish stipe. Researching possible IDs. It seems like a precise ID on this mushroom will be near impossible without DNA sequencing - a resource I don’t know how to gain access to.
Cap: slightly less than an inch in diameter. Fibrous, brown, with hardened scales near the top.
Gills: Beige, adnexed.
Stipe: Smooth.
Annulus: Not present.
Volva: Not present; however, the stipe ends in a pronounced bulbous base.
Spore color: Rust brown.
Spore morphology: Nodulose.
Basidia: I wasn’t able to tell; some basidia had 3 sterigmata while others had 4 or even 2.
Cheilocystidia: metuloid.
Image 6 & 7: spores at 2000x mag.
Image 8: cheilocystidia at 2000x mag.
Image 9 & 10: possible basidia(?) at 2000x mag.
In wood chip landscaping. Mild mushroom odor and flavor. Cap extremely viscid!
Spores measure
(6.9) 7.2 - 8 (9) × (3.8) 4.1 - 4.7 (4.8) x (3.6) 3.9 - 4.4 (4.5) µm
Q = (1.6) 1.64 - 1.87 (1.9) ; N = 30
Me = 7.7 × 4.4 µm ; Qe = 1.7
This may sound strange, but this is actually the first true morel I have ever found. Albeit I’ve only been into this sort of thing for a year now. Today it was sort of my mission to at least find some sort of morel. At one point I was chanting “morchella morchella morchella” into the forest floor to see if anything would happen. Literally, no more than 5 minutes later I found this litte guy hanging out, growing out of a disturbed area of forest floor. There was only one (to my dismay) - something I came to accept 15 minutes after scouring the ground for more. Really awesome thing to find!
Im assuming this is M. norvegiensis because its a woodland morel and consistent with most images I found online. Im not a morel expert, so if I am wrong feel free to correct me!
I went home, made a spore solution, mixed with some ash and clay and spread it under a hemlock in the woods behind my neighborhood. I await next spring with minimal expectations.