Morel Mushroom Lifespan

Considerations

• As a general rule, the cooler the temperatures the longer a morel mushroom will grow before it goes bad. At 65 to 75 degrees F, a morel mushroom has a one- to two-week lifespan in the wild.

Function

• In order to regenerate, morel spores produce something like a network of underground branches called mycellium. Mycellium may sit dormant for many years before triggering a bloom of morel mushrooms.

Features

• Morel's mycellium requires a certain amount of of moisture and warmer temperatures in order to produce tiny mushrooms, called "raisins."

Effects

• There are many different varieties of morels, and they all begin to spore out and deteriorate at different temperatures.

Types

• The Conica morels, which appear after forest fires, usually begin to degrade and produce thousands of spores when the temperatures are over 70 degrees for more three days or more.