Morchella esculenta?/ABAPR09 : 15 posts by 4 authors. Attachments (2)

Friday, on my walk I met a young local boy collecting something on the slopes. Curious, I asked him what he was collecting and he was kind enough to climb down to show me a mushroom he was collecting with another woman. He told me that it was called Jhinjhiri (or chinchiri, I can’t say exactly) and once dried fetched good price in the medicine market. A kilo of dried stuff went for about Rs 2000 he said. He allowed me to photograph it and I am sharing it with you.

Another local woman later told me that she had eaten it in a vegetable dish but added that it was rare to get. If I am not wrong it looks like a Common Morel or Morchella esculenta.
Dr Narain Singh Chauhan mentions it in his book for its medicinal properties (p. 268, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Himachal Pradesh, 2nd ed.) and use as food.
Please advise.
Morchella esculenta (Common Morel)
Above Mcleodganj, Dharamshala, HP
1800m
10 April 2015

seems to be correct
morel
May be … will see thos post and reply


Thank you for the nice picture of an Morchella sp. Recently Prof.Sudhakara Reddy, of Thapar Institute has published an interesting paper on the biodiversity and molecular taxonomy of Himachal Morchell a spp.
In his personal communication he said that there is no esculentta spp in India. Please refer his paper or contact him for further clarification.

i have not been able to track that paper…
usually i can find things
may be Professor Reddy himself can throw some light on this

May please exclude possibility of Verpa bohemica by looking at the cap. In Morchella cap is firmly attached to axis, it is free from axis in Verpa.


… raises a n imp issue
one site that describes this in USa north carolina halfway down the page
she is very specific with details to look for
i have heard her talks

Thank you … I looked at all the pictures I took that day of the fungus and realised I had failed to take a picture that shows how the cap is attached to the stem. So I have no way to check now but Verpa bohemica is a distinct possibility.


Thanks for the mail and sending the pics of morels. I can not say it is Morchella esculenta, but it is Morchella species. For identification we require the specimen, location and under which plantation it is collected. We have already studied the diversity of Morels from northwest Himalayas.
It is one of the delicious and priced wild mushroom and difficult to cultivate.

Thank you … Unfortunately, I do not have the specimen. I found a young man collecting these in the wild on a mountain slope at about 1750m altitude above Mcleodganj, Dharamshala. The wood was a mixture of cedar, rhododendron, grey oak, wild pear and occasional spruce and pine.
What Morchella species are found here in the Western Himalayas?

 

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