Nature & living things

It beats the morels to the thaw, and it isn't one

Verpa bohemica, known as the early morel or wrinkled thimble-cap, is a spring mushroom that looks like a true morel but gives itself away under the cap: instead of being fused to the stem along its whole length, the pale, ribbed, thimble-shaped cap hangs free from just the top, like a loose hat. The stem beneath is lighter, brittle, and can stretch up to 12 centimetres, initially stuffed with cottony fibers before becoming hollow with age. Under a microscope the species is unmistakable, producing unusually large spores and typically only two per ascus rather than the usual eight, a trait so distinctive it once prompted some mycologists to split it into its own genus, Ptychoverpa. It was first described in 1828 by a Czech doctor working near Bohemia, which gave the mushroom its species name, and was later found in Canada in the early 1900s under yet another name before taxonomists settled on its current classification.

The fungus grows across northern North America, Europe, and parts of Asia, favoring damp, sunlit woodland near rivers, cottonwoods, willows, and aspens, often buried in leaf litter. It tends to fruit earliest of all the morel-season mushrooms, emerging right as deciduous leaves begin to open and well before true morels appear, a pattern confirmed by a decade-long study in Iowa that tracked the succession of different morel species through spring. Scientists have generally treated it as a decomposer living off dead organic matter, though some evidence hints it may form a partnership with tree roots for part of its life. One curious piece of research found that its spore-bearing cells bend toward light, angling themselves so spores get released into open space where wind can carry them off.ʹ

Edibility is where the mushroom turns controversial. It's eaten widely, even sold frozen in Russia, yet eating too much at once or on consecutive days has been linked to nausea, loss of muscle coordination, and in extreme cases coma, symptoms resembling poisoning from a toxin found in a related false morel. No one has actually detected that toxin in Verpa bohemica, so the cause remains unconfirmed, and some people also report an alcohol intolerance after eating it. Advice from foragers is to cook it thoroughly, try only a small amount the first time, and some recommend eating just the caps and discarding the stems. Opinions on its taste are mixed, with descriptions ranging from a strong morel-like flavor to merely pleasant or entirely unremarkable.

Under a microscope each spore sac holds just two spores, and they are enormous by fungal standards at up to 80 micrometres long.

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