The Meager Morel

 I hunt mushrooms every year and this time around I expected the numbers to be great. A warm winter. A mild spring, Plenty of early rain. What more could a morel want?

 Obviously something it didn't get. So far this season, I've found one.

 Here's how it looked on 04/01. It's tucked right up against the base of a tree and so it's growing away from the trunk. It looks like it has Peyronie's Disease (don't know what that is? look it up). Just three days later (I didn't pick it, of course) this is how it looked:

 It's a beautiful thing, though small. I love the musky sexual scent, the spongy top. But I left it alone and hope it manages some offspring next year. I went back a week later and the poor thing has spent itself, dried up in situ, its season come and gone in this shady spot in the woods. I might follow its example given half the chance.