Morchella frustrata

Morchella frustrata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Ascomycota
Class:	Pezizomycetes
Order:	Pezizales
Family:	Morchellaceae
Genus:	Morchella
Species:	M. frustrata
Binomial name
Morchella frustrata M.Kuo (2012)

Morchella frustrata is a later synonym of Morchella tridentina, a species originally described by Giacomo Bresadola from north Italy in 1898. It is a species of fungus in the family Morchellaceae referred to as the mountain blond or western blond morel in North America, but commonly found throughout the Mediterranean basin. It has conical, grey to buff fruit bodies that grow up to 20 cm (7.9 in) tall and 5 cm (2.0 in) wide. Recent molecular and morphological studies have also shown Morchella frustrata to be conspecific to M. quercus-ilicis, M. elatoides, M. elatoides var. elegans and M. conica var. pseudoeximia. So far, this cosmopolitan species is known from California and Oregon in North America, from Argentina and Chile in South America, from Spain, France, Cyprus, Italy and Turkey in Europe, and has also been reported from Israel and India.

Morchella frustrata was described as new to science in a 2012 publication by Michael Kuo and colleagues. The report resulted from the Morel Data Collection Project, which aimed to clarify aspects of the biology, taxonomy and distribution of North American Morchella, and described 14 new morel species. The type locality was in Placer County, California. The morel was previously referred to as phylogenetic species (i.e., defined by DNA sequence rather than morphological characteristics) Mel-2 in a study the year before, and informally as the "mountain blond morel". Despite its light color, M. frustrata belongs to the Elata clade along with other black morels, including M. tomentosa and M. angusticeps. The specific epithet frustrata refers to the "frustrating combination of black and yellow morel features that characterize the species."

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Wikipedia