My wife and I had dinner with a friend and his family on the east side of the state.
As we were pulling down their driveway I noticed he had been splitting several logs of Ash. As we talked, he mentioned that in the last two years he is having mortality of over 25% on his large ash trees. I commented, "Hate to ask noticing the terrible loss however, 'Are you finding Morels?'” His comment, "yes several since the ash started to die. They grew right next to the paved drive where it is warm and the roots of the ash trees in the yard run next to the drive."

As a child, I remember Sunday’s after morning milking and chores where my family would visit neighboring farms as we hunted the dirt roads where large elms had recently died from Dutch-elm disease. Often on these warm May days we picked one or two 5lb onion bags of big white/yellow morels. It is sad to see so many majestic trees falling again to yet another imported disease, and I fell sadistic to ask the below, yet, I will ask.

First, from my biology I remember the concepts of symbiotic relationship, and have read some in the last few years about morels and the mycorrhizal association where the fungus colonizes the host plant's roots; therefore, why elms and morels? It seems my best finds, in numbers in one location, over the last 20+ years have been dead elms. I tend to find a hit on about 1:50 tees when I look for the elms at the right time after death.

Second, I realize we are not to ask questions, hope this does not violate. Just in general have others seen articles from those who study mycology on ash dying and morels?

If I violated the posting policy please inform me... I will delete. I guess I am working too hard to get my ten posts.

Thanks,
Mark A.
Zeeland, MI

Any dying tree can cause a flush of morels if it was previously a host.

Morels sense the nutrient loss, and need to procreate in order to get away from what they know will soon be a hostile place for them to be.

if you want more in depth reading, get the gtr -710 report as it has more details on things like Hartigs nets and a general overview of morels mycorhyzal relationship with trees and other plants.


you can ask questions here....i dont know who told you that you couldn't?

Questions are always welcome as long as a post isn't ongoing about the same subject.



I would like to know too. Send it via PM if you are willing.

I'm not pm'ing, you. You've got PM cooties.