Major Groups > True Morels and Verpas > Excluded Species > Morchella atrotomentosa

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Note: This page explores the taxonomic validity of the species name "Morchella atrotomentosa." If you have arrived here wanting to identify morels, please see Morchella tomentosa for a common North American morel matching the "Morchella atrotomentosa" found in field guides.


Morchella atrotomentosa  (Morchella esculenta var. atrotomentosa)


by Michael Kuo

In Sydowia, Annales Mycologici ser. II (1949; 3: 189-190), Moser described Morchella esculenta var. atrotomentosa as follows:

Morchella atrotomentosa

Moser provided a Latin diagnosis, but did not designate a type collection--and he published the taxon as a temporary (ad interim), and therefore invalid, taxon.

Jacquetant (1984) describes and illustrates "Morchella atrotomentosa (Moser) Bride," but provides no reference for the Bride publication. The combination "Morchella atrotomentosa (Moser) Bride," however, is built on an invalid basionym, and use of the name would require a proposal to conserve Moser's taxon name--a conspicuous maneuver that would be easily discovered in standard taxonomic references; no such proposal exists.

The North American species Morchella tomentosa M. Kuo was named "in part to reflect potential continuity with Moser's invalid taxon while also acknowledging that the North American species, while always tomentose, is not always black tomentose," since "Moser described only a black to blackish brown hymenophore and stipe" (Kuo, 2008).



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Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2008, November). Morchella atrotomentosa. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/morchella_atrotomentosa.html

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