18 / OutdoorIllinois March 2007

Hunting for morel mushroomsisn’t easy for beginners. But one luckynovice made a morel discovery inhis own backyard.

MorelsUnderfootStory and PhotosBy Joe McFarland

Every spring across Illinois,thousands of perfectlydecent citizens slip off intoforests to do somethingthey’d rather not discuss. Itwill be early April, justabout the time trees begin

to develop a few small leaves, whenunfamiliar cars and trucks beginappearing along country roads.Strangers will step out, gripping knives,then disappear into the woods. Mostwill be carrying bags or baskets.

When they return, these ordinarypeople—many from honest, well-respected communities—will driveaway and refuse to tell anyone wherethey’ve been. On the following daythey might return, and on each dayafterward for a couple of weeks, untilthe leaves on trees are almost fullyopened, and then the people will van-ish for another year.

Lou Conte said he had never heardof such a thing.

“Until last year, I don’t know that I’dbe able to recognize a morel mush-room,” this respected Illinois residentexplained from his Jackson Countyhome. Scarcely an hour earlier, Contewas in the woods behind his house pick-ing dozens of morels, experiencing forthe first time what so many Illinois resi-dents swear they know nothing about.

“It was always such a mystery,”Conte recalled while slicing open thehollow mushrooms on his picnic table.“Several people I know said they weregoing to show me how to find morels,but they never did.”

There’s a good reason. Morel mush-rooms, a common name for the fruitingbodies of fungi belonging to the genusMorchella, are far too precious to sharewith even close friends. They can bedelicious. They’re considered delicacies.Gourmet restaurants throw lavish feastsfeaturing morels. But the fact thesepeculiar-looking mushrooms oftengrow in the same places year after yearmakes the location of those treasuredhotspots priceless information.

So Conte turned to other sources formorel guidance.

Thanks to the Department of Natur-al Resources and OutdoorIllinois maga-

zine, Conte gained all of the back-ground information he needed tomake educated forays into the woodsin search of the sponge-capped springfungi. Conte learned about morel habi-tat, collection techniques and safeidentification. He quickly built enoughconfidence to predict exactly wheremorels might grow on his property—months before the season.

Trees, he learned, are an importantassociation for morels—but only certaintrees are frequent hosts.

“Yellow poplars and ash trees,”Conte recited. “And dead elm trees. Alsodead cottonwoods and dead or dyingapple trees.”

Conte is a frequent visitor to thewoods and once considered a career as azoologist. But since tree identification

March 2007 OutdoorIllinois / 19

can be tricky before leaves fully appear,a copy of Forest Trees of Illinois (avail-able through DNR’s gift shop at 217-782-1687) can be handy.

Conte learned that yellow morelmushrooms (Morchella esculenta) oftenappear on the ground around specifictrees during morel season. But whywait until morel season before findingthe right habitat? Conte scanned hisbackyard forest in February, and decid-ed precisely where he would look formushrooms in April.

“I found a number of yellow poplarand ash trees on my property,” Contesaid. “When it was time to look formorels, that’s where I found morels.

When I wandered away from thosetrees, I stopped finding morels.”

The hunt itself is rarely easy. The pit-ted, honeycomb design of morels areperfect camouflage among leaf litter—infact, one entrepreneurial Illinois morelhunter created his own line of camou-flage material based on the design.

“No wonder I’ve never seen thembefore,” Conte said while slowly wan-dering the hillside. “They’re impossi-ble to see. I’ve been hiking out hereevery spring for years and I’ve nevernoticed morels.”

One trick, Conte learned fromexperts, is to understand precisely whenmorels pop out of the ground duringspring. If morels are hard to spot (andthey can be maddeningly difficult tosee), it’s helpful to know when the timeis right before heading to the woods.

“I tell people to imagine the shape ofa morel,” suggested Illinois Natural His-tory Survey mycologist Andrew Miller,who hunts for morels in central Illinoisin mid to late April. “When your eyessee that matching image on the ground,you’ve found morels.”

As for selecting habitat, Miller saidthe conspicuous appearance of dead

After learning what trees might host morels,

amateur mushroom hunter Lou Conte scout-

ed his backyard forest in February and made

a bold prediction—during April, he would

find morels under yellow poplars. He found

them exactly where he predicted.

All true morel mushrooms are completely

hollow. Slice open these sponge-capped fungi

to verify their identity. No other potential

look-alikes found during the spring match the

hollow construction of a morel.

Ameri-can elmtrees—oneof the well-knownhosts of Morchella esculenta—makefinding habitat easy. Dead Americanelms (Ulmus americana) typically shedtheir bark to reveal a bare trunk withina year or two after dying. Those baretrunks can be easy targets for hunters,even from considerable distances.

“Any morel hunter worth his saltcan spot a dead elm at 60 miles anhour,” Miller added.

Rain and temperature are important,too. Tom Nauman, who operates the“mushrooming”business MorelMania with his wifeVicky in PutnamCounty, suggestslooking for morelsafter spring weathertruly sets in.

“Pay attention tothe weatherman,”Nauman suggests. “When theovernight low stays above 60 degrees,

that’swhen I start

looking.”The Naumans host the Illinois

State Morel Mushroom Hunting Cham-pionship each year, a friendly competi-tion where hundreds of morel huntersscour the woods for the biggest, thesmallest and the most morels—hopingfor the ultimate prize of Grand Cham-pion. Whereas most morel experts hideinformation, Nauman shares every-thing he knows.

“I’m the exception,”Nauman said. “I take

about 500people to oneof my bestmushroom

spots every year.”This year’s festival

is set for the first weekend in Mayat the Marshall-Putnam Fairgroundsin Henry (a couple of hours south-west of Chicago). Registrationinformation can be found at morelmania.com.

For Conte, a beginner with a new,morel secret in his backyard, learninghow to find morels not only solved themystery surrounding these fabledfungi, it represented a new way toexpand his participation in nature.

“That’s what it’s all about,” Contesaid, gesturing toward the trees.“I love being out in the woods any-way, and this is just another way toenjoy nature.”

“I could get used to doing thisevery year.”

With nicknames such as “smokies” or

“blacks,” the dark morels known as

Morchella elata share the essential traits

of all true morels: a sponge-like cap and

completely hollow interior.

20 / OutdoorIllinois March 2007

Look for morels in Illinois when forest

trees are just starting to leaf out, and look

closely—the reward of a bowl of yellow

morels (inset) is worth the effort.