I joined my mushrooming class for the second outing, this time in serious search for some morels. For the sake of comparison, we also hoped to find the similar looking but poisonous false morel. True morels will have one peak and be hollow from inside the bell cap through the stem, while false morels will have several peaks and be filled with several hollow chambers interspersed with a cottony substance. Our outing took us again into the Bükk Hills where we entered the forest at Lyukóbánya, a former coal mine (1938-2004) and formerly prosperous area of weekend garden cottages. At the meeting point, Vera brought me a present that I was not to open until I got home (túrós rétes!). We parked by the mine entrance then walked down a long serpentine on the asphalt until we went into the woods by a barrier. Morels like have a mycorrhiza relationship with cherry trees, and I have never seen so many in my life - and certainly not expect to see them filling the forest near Miskolc in the vicinity of an old coal mine.

While I found several interesting tapló mushrooms and an old devil's snuffbox, I only found one morel. Everyone else found enough for a meal. I felt like the class idiot. However, the false morel I found was so nice that the teacher brought it home. I also found my first lingzhi mushroom.

Full list of mushrooms found here

Photo Credits: Szűcs Béla