Morchella esculent, (commonly known as common morel, morel,yellow morel, true morel, morel mushroom, and sponge morel) is aspecies of fungus in the family Morchellaceae of the Ascomycota.It is one of the most readily recognized of all the ediblemushrooms and highly sought after. Each fruit body begins as atightly compressed, grayish sponge with lighter ridges, andexpands to form a large yellowish sponge with large pits andridges raised on a large white stem.