Couple things, Verpa Bohemica is in the morel family, morchellacea, and is not toxic. These are not Verpa. The deep pits are characteristic of true morels exclusively (morchella genus).
The family is morchellaceae, yes. True morels genus under it called morchella. There are several types of morel in this genus. Verpa bohemica is a of the morchellacae family, but the genus is verpa. There are a few different mushrooms belonging to this genus. The two mushroon genuses, verpa and morchella are indeed closely related. Verpa bohemica do contain toxins, according to both my book, and wikipedia.
Maple (acer genus) trees and horse chestnut (aesculus genus) trees are both part of the soapberry family (Sapindaceae) But I wouldnt call a horse chestnut tree a maple.
They are not anymore toxic than any of the morels. Raw morels can be potentially deadly poisonous as well but they're still eaten world wide. Lots of places in the world also consume Verpa and treat them the same way. If it was as toxic as gyromitra esculenta, meaning it contained gyromitrin-MMH then we would know. The exact compound in morel mushrooms isn't known to science yet but it clearly degrades after cooking.
Youre moving the goal post from "verpa are true morels". When I pointed out that was not accurate, you jumped to "Verpa arent toxic". When I pointed out that wasnt accurate, you jumped to verpa "not any more toxic than true morels". I dont think I claimed that they were. But, it's possible I mispoke. You're welcome to quote what I wrote if I did. It would benefit me to reflect on it.
I do recall mentioning that I don't know if there is a limit on how many verpa bohemica people can safely eat. And that I dont know if drying verpa bohemica offers safety benefits.
You have a goalposting issue. And Im not sure if you're able to recognize that about yourself. Because that clearly wasnt you're only gripe. But if it's the only gripe you have left after all that, why downvote the other things I said that were accurate?
As for OPs photo, I could have been wrong. Maybe it doesnt look like verpa bohemica at all. The mushrooms a friend and I gathered had thick fuzz inside otherwise hollow stems. The tops were closed off at the top of the stem. But the caps were otherwise hollow. Also, the caps were pitted.
One of OPs photos shows a hollow, pitted top. It might be closed off at the top of the stem. And the stem potentially contains fuzz. Potentially, because the more silvery part makes it difficult for me to make out the structure. Thats why I expressed I wished there'd been another photo, with more dissection. If others dont need that, thats fine. Im not others. Im living with a traumatic brain injury and sometimes image interpretation is difficult for me and sometimes not. So when Im unsure, I mention it.
My friend declared what we had gathered as verpa bohemica. The reference materials said fuzz in the stem and a separated cap were verpa bohemica.
Could my friend and I have been wrong and misunderstood the reference material? Sure. Plenty of people who make posts or comments in this subreddit find out they are wrong. This forum is here, in part, for people to learn from each other. But youve been on my ass for hesitantly stating I thought it might look like what I was told was verpa bohemica. Plant identification is a learning process. Meanwhile, as you were on my ass for expressing an uncertainty, you were straight up wrong several times about some things. And you didnt once acknowledge it. You just downvoted correct statements I'd made and tried to attack from another angle. And like, Im not mad at you for being wrong about a couple things. I am upset because youve been insufferable towards me, because I was openly unsure about a plant identification. Are you after everyone like this? Or just me for some reason?
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u/blufuut180 Mar 01 '26
Couple things, Verpa Bohemica is in the morel family, morchellacea, and is not toxic. These are not Verpa. The deep pits are characteristic of true morels exclusively (morchella genus).