What happens if you eat a false morel?

Potentially deadly. Gyromitrin causes vomiting, liver damage and in serious cases death. Toxin content varies unpredictably by region and individual, so a preparation that has worked for someone elsewhere is not a safety guarantee.

False Morel vs Morel

The test that settles it

Slice it lengthwise. A true morel is completely hollow inside and its cap is honeycomb-pitted and fused to the stem.

Read this before anything else

Never eat a wild mushroom identified by a website or an app.That includes this one. These tools narrow possibilities; they cannot see your mushroom, its base, its smell or its habitat, and the difference between a meal and a liver transplant is sometimes a feature buried in the soil.
Get it confirmed in person by an experienced local forager or a mycological society. Most regions have one, most run free identification sessions, and they will look at the actual specimen.
Dig, do not pull. The cup at the base of a death cap is often underground. Pulling the mushroom leaves the most important feature in the soil.
If someone has eaten a wild mushroom and feels unwell, call poison control now — in the US, 1-800-222-1222. Do not wait for symptoms to worsen. Amatoxin poisoning has a false recovery phase, and delayed treatment is what makes it fatal. Save any uneaten pieces for identification.

False Morel

Can kill

Gyromitra esculenta

Under the cap: none
Spore print: cream, white
Growing on: soil, conifer litter
Stem: Short, thick, whitish, and stuffed with cottony tissue or chambered — not a clean hollow.
If eaten: Potentially deadly. Gyromitrin causes vomiting, liver damage and in serious cases death. Toxin content varies unpredictably by region and individual, so a preparation that has worked for someone elsewhere is not a safety guarantee.

Morel

No known toxins

Morchella species

Under the cap: ridges
Spore print: cream
Growing on: soil, hardwood litter, woodchip
Stem: Whitish and completely hollow, continuous with the hollow interior of the cap.
If eaten: No significant toxins when thoroughly cooked, and widely eaten — but raw or undercooked morels cause gastric illness, and some people react even to cooked ones. Never eaten raw. As always, confirm locally before eating.

Confirming false morel

Cap wrinkled and lobed like a brain, not pitted with a honeycomb of ridges and hollows.
Cut it lengthwise: false morels are stuffed with cottony tissue or irregularly chambered. True morels are completely hollow from cap tip to stem base.
Cap attaches only at the top, hanging like a skirt, rather than being fused to the stem along its length.
Appears in spring alongside true morels, in similar habitat.

Confirming morel

Completely hollow when cut lengthwise — cap and stem form a single empty chamber.
Cap pitted like a honeycomb, with ridges and hollows, not wrinkled like a brain.
Cap attached to the stem along its lower edge, not hanging free like a skirt.
Spring only, often near dying elms, ash, apple orchards and recent burn sites.

Still not certain?

Then you have your answer, and it is not to eat it. Run the full key, then take the specimen to someone who can hold it.

Identify it step by step