First report of the post-fire morel Morchella exuberans in eastern North America

ABSTRACT

Reports of true morels (Morchella) fruiting on conifer burn sites are common in western North America where five different fire-adapted species of black morels (Elata Clade) have been documented based on multilocus phylogenetic analyses. Fruiting of post-fire morels in eastern North America, by comparison, are rare and limited to a report from Minnesota in 1977 and eastern Ontario in 1991. Here, nuc rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 = ITS) sequences were used to identify the post-fire morel that fruited in great abundance the year following the 2012 Duck Lake Fire in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and after the 2016 large-scale fire in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee as M. exuberans. A preliminary phylogenetic analysis suggests that the collections from eastern North America may be more closely related to those from Europe than from western North America, Europe, and China.

KEYWORDS:

• Ascomycota
• biogeography
• conservation
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park
• ITS rDNA
• Michigan
• RPB1
• RPB2
• TEF1
• true morel

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are pleased to acknowledge the skilled technical assistance of Gail Doehring and Nathane Orwig in various aspects of this study.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported through the NSF RAPID grant “Collaborative Research: A Survey of Post-Fire Ascomycete and Basidiomycete Fungi in an Eastern Deciduous Forest” to the University of Tennessee (DEB 17-33750) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (DEB 17-33854). Mention of trade names or commercial products in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific information and does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.