How find morels.

After answering the question "when searching for morels?" comes naturally the question "how to find morels?".

The establishment of a certain strategy can increase your chances of nice discoveries.

An old fire place in a cleared area.

Good morels areas can be 2 types: perennial areas where the morel appears every year, and pioneering areas where the morel appears only one or two years, sometimes abundant before disappearing later.

If you have never found morels, you will easily find general informations that can identify habitats that may be suitable to morels.

If you have already found morels, you can look similar places or with some variations, it will help deepen your knowledge and to better target your research.

A grove with hawthorn.

I will not speak here of plants associated with morels. This is a vast subject, and most importantly, with time and a lot of exploration in different parts, I realized that these associations could vary widely. This will be further investigated.


In all cases, if you want to find your first morels or new places, and don't adopt a certain strategy, you will end quickly by despair or disperse unnecessarily.

That is not the matter to go in the nature in all directions. As looking for a needle in a haystack.

A grove of lilacs.

I adopted the following strategy to increase my chances: I spot a few favorable areas, with a size not too big and not very far from my house so I could get there easily when the season is likely to start.

I choose the areas likely to be of perennial and pioneering places.

Once the season starts, I visit my areas every 3 or 4 days and I observe what is happening there.

If the morels are already out in some areas, I keep going to visit these places. Indeed, some places may be later.

By adopting this strategy, I managed to find four interesting places in 2011. The observation of these places, helped me better identified some areas to prospect in 2012. Later, I use the same method to explore areas in altitude.