Description
Resembling a brain, the irregularly shaped cap may be up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) high and 15 centimetres (5.9 in) wide. Initially smooth, it becomes progressively more wrinkled as it grows and ages. The cap colour may be various shades of reddish-, chestnut-, purplish-, bay-, dark or sometimes golden-brown. Specimens from California may have more reddish-brown caps. Attached to the cap at several points, the stipe is 3–6 centimetres (1.2–2.4 in) high and 2–3 centimetres (0.8–1.2 in) wide. Gyromitra esculenta has a solid stipe whereas those of true morels (Morchella spp.) are hollow. The smell can be pleasant and has been described as fruity, and the fungus is mild-tasting. The spore print is whitish, with transparent spores that are elliptical and 17–22 μm in length.
G. esculenta resembles the various species of true morel, although the latter are more symmetric and look more like pitted gray, tan, or brown sponges. Its cap is generally darker and larger.
Read more about this topic: Gyromitra Esculenta
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to turn even to the description of work, the simple record of the month’s labor in the farmer’s almanac, to restore our tone and spirits.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Once a child has demonstrated his capacity for independent functioning in any area, his lapses into dependent behavior, even though temporary, make the mother feel that she is being taken advantage of....What only yesterday was a description of the child’s stage in life has become an indictment, a judgment.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“The type of fig leaf which each culture employs to cover its social taboos offers a twofold description of its morality. It reveals that certain unacknowledged behavior exists and it suggests the form that such behavior takes.”
—Freda Adler (b. 1934)