Morchella elata

Taxonomy

The fruit bodies of Morchella species, including M. elata, are highly polymorphic in appearance, exhibiting variations in shape, color and size; this has contributed to uncertainties regarding taxonomy. Discriminating between the various species is complicated by uncertainty regarding which species are truly biologically distinct. Mushroom hunters refer to them by their color as the species are very similar in appearance and vary considerably within species and age of individual.

Early phylogenetic analyses supported the hypothesis that the genus comprises only a few species with considerable phenotypic variation. More recent DNA work, however, has revealed more than a dozen distinct groups of morels in North America, and over 60 worldwide. An extensive DNA study showed three discrete clades, or genetic groups, consisting of the black morels (M. elata and others), the yellow morels (M. esculenta and others), and the white morels (M. rufobrunnea and M. anatolica). Species within the Elata clade (also referred to as Distantes), are characterised by the gradual darkening of their sterile ridges upon maturity, with the exception of M. tridentina (=M. frustrata), which has persistently pale ridges. Within the black and yellow clades, there are dozens of individual species, many endemic to individual continents or regions. This species-rich view is supported by studies in North America, Western Europe, Turkey, Israel, the Himalayas, and China.

The scientific name Morchella elata was proposed by Elias Magnus Fries from Sweden in 1822. DNA analysis in 2011 has shown North American black morels to be largely distinct from European species, therefore restricting the use of the M. elata name to Europe. In 2012, Kuo et al. provided names for many of the North American black morels that may have been referred to as M. elata in the past. However, in a subsequent study by Richard et al. (2014) proposing a unified taxonomy for the genus, it is suggested that Fries' original description of Morchella elata may correspond to phylogenetic lineage Mel-10, which has been since described from North America as Morchella importuna, but later shown to have a widespread transcontinental distribution.

The variety M. elata var. purpurescens, characterised by the purple- or pink-colored tinges of its ascocarps, is now considered to belong to a phylogenetically distinct lineage (Richard et al. 2014).