Mushrooms on Pine View Golf Course by Corey Seeman
My Michigan morel mushroom groups are starting to light up with mushroom finds so it’s a good time to remind folks that May is morel month in Michigan!
The actual fruiting period can be anywhere from late April until mid-June depending on where you are in the Mitten & what species you are hunting. Contrary to common belief, morels are not confined to the northern part of the state – some of the best picking (such as the photo today) can be found in southern Michigan.
MOREL HUNTING TIPS
- Make your first several mushroom hunts, whether for morels or other edible mushroom species, with someone who knows mushrooms.
- Buy or download a mushroom guide. A good guidebook is “The Mushroom Hunter’s Field Guide” by Alexander H. Smith, recognized as America’s foremost authority on mushroom identification, and Nancy Smith Weber. There also is a very good mushroom identification booklet available on the U.S. Department of Agriculture website.
- Be prepared to cover a lot of ground and to experience disappointments when searching for morels. Some spots yield mushrooms year after year, while others skip several seasons between crops.
- Don’t expect to find morels easily if you are new to the pastime. Because they blend into their background of last fall’s leaves and dead grass, they are hard to see even if you are looking right at them. Your “eye” for morels will sharpen with practice, and you will need to retrain it every spring.
- Most important of all – know what you are eating! You will need to know the difference between a “true” morel and the “false morels,” such as beefsteak mushrooms, which are poisonous. (See morel identification information.)
- For more information on morel mushroom hunting in Michigan, visit Pure Michigan or Midwest American Mycological Information.
- And finally, the Morel tag on Michigan in Pictures is chock full of great advice. Happy hunting!!
Corey took this on May 4th in Ypsilanti last year. Head over to his Flickr for his latest!
Michigan in Pictures 