Where to Look for Morel Mushrooms

Here are a few popular theories amongst mushroom hunters about the best spots to look for morels: 

In old apple orchards

On south-facing slopes

On north-facing slopes

Around dead Elm trees

Near dead trees

Near dead trees that still have bark clinging to them

In sandy soil

Near old sawmills

Near wood piles

In river bottoms

On high ground

At burn sites

Near railroad beds

Under Cottonwood trees

Under Poplar trees

Under Tulip Poplar trees

Under Douglas Fir trees

Under Ash trees

Under Oak trees

Under Hawthorn trees

In Mayapple patches

And Larry Lonik’s survey of morel hunters elicited some of these responses: 

Swampy areas

Along river beds

Open fields

Dense, older forests

Golf courses

Cemeteries

Along fencerows

Along roads

Stumps

Near fresh water

In light snow with sunshine

As far away from civilization as possible

In the backyard

In the sunshine

In the shade

Near wild raspberry bushes

Very tops of steep hills

Following ravines

Light, rolling hills

Deep grasses

Around trilliums

Where dogwood blooms

Near fiddlehead ferns

Near leeks

Edge of puddles

Melting snowbanks

Moist valleys

Paths

Deep in prickly ash

(From The Curious Morel, pages 34-36)

Fred concentrates on ravines in southern Indiana, in “Sycamore hollers with a creek runnin’ through it,” he says.  He looks along the creek as well at the base of trees.  “I’ve seen ‘em grow out of bare creek banks,” he says.  “But any forest is good for late ones,” he adds, noting that Ash and Poplars are also good hosts. 

But as we know, morels don’t necessarily conform to rules.  (Besides, if they did, that’s too long a list to remember!)  Robert Lowendick of Ohio says, “I’ve found them growing alongside my driveway. My sister has found them growing in a cattle pasture.”

The primo locations listed above may say more about how a specific mushroom hunter scouts for morels than where morels sprout.  Michael Kuo explains, “I would imagine that the theories listed above are all correct--even the ones that are opposites--which is to say that they all produce mushrooms for the people doing the theorizing. . . When someone says ‘morels grow on south-facing slopes near patches of mayapples,’ what we have learned is that the speaker finds morels on south-facing slopes near patches of mayapples. We have probably also learned that the speaker does not look for morels on north-facing slopes with no mayapples.”

In other words, we Homo Sapiens with our big brains categorize our world to make sense of it.  We find morels, we sauté morels in a little butter, we grunt “Morels Good!”  We go out and find more morels and look around, taking note of the surroundings.  We walk a little farther until the surroundings are similar and wa-la!  We find more morels.  The problem with this is that we’re missing all the other places morels might be.  If you only search south-facing slopes, you’re missing all the morels on north-facing slopes!  If you only search under Tulip Poplars, you’re missing all the morels under Elms!   

As Tom Tokarski of southern Indiana remarks, “I look for them where I found them the year before.  I don’t look for a particular tree or plant.  They grow in a variety of different places--they could be anywhere.”  Even Carl the Mushroom King says to “look everywhere.”   

The trick is to morel hunting is to be open-minded, take your time, be thorough, look closely.  As Michael recommends, “. . .these instincts are more holistic and impressionistic than specific and scientific. . .it's not very useful to attempt to isolate one or two perceived factors that go into what is essentially a subconscious equation.”

Ah, but two rules seem to always hold true for prime morel real estate: dead Elm trees and former burn sites. As Michael says, “. . .people have known for centuries that morels can be prompted by forest fires. Rich land owners in Europe used to intentionally set fire to their woods to prompt morels--and, following the big burn in Yellowstone in the 1990s, there were so many morels that Park officials had to license mushroom hunters.” Nancy adds that at least 44,000 pounds of morels were gathered from one burn alone in Austria.