My next door neighbor told me yesterday he had been out "merkel hunting." My brother-in-law also had been hunting merkels last weekend and found a big handful. Local folks call the Morel mushroom "a merkel." The Latin genus name, Morchella, suggests the origin of this peculiar name. Stories of these mushrooms also being called "dryland fish" and "hickory chickens" in Appalachia signal the need for considerable more research into the folklore of this traditional spring hunt.
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