Isolation and Molecular Identification of the Pure Culture of Morchella Collected from Türkiye and Its Characteristics

True morels (Morchella spp.) are highly valuable and medicinal mushrooms. Saprophytic morels have been cultivated, especially in China and some Western countries, over the last few decades. T & uuml;rkiye has a rich potential in terms of wild morel diversity, with nearly 40 Morchella species in its genetic pool, though only 22 of these have been identified molecularly. It has high economic value worldwide, and T & uuml;rkiye exports morels worth approximately 2 million $ annually. There is also significant interest in morel mushroom cultivation in T & uuml;rkiye. In this study, 40 Morchella strains were collected and isolated from different regions of T & uuml;rkiye and analyzed based on the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) of the nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) region. A phylogenetic dendrogram was drawn. The isolates of M. importuna, M. exima, M. exuberans, M. dunali, M. tridentina, M. crassipes, and M. esculenta were identified based on the ITS rDNA region. However, the identification of isolates 849-Kg027 and 966-Kg142 could not be determined clearly, and the isolates of M. vulgarius and M. spongiola were not distinct based on the ITS analysis. The macro-morphological features of the mycelia were investigated. Mycelia colors ranged from off-white to pale gray in the juvenile stage, orange to pale brown during early pigmentation, and pale brown to dark brown in the senescence stage. M. crassipes, M. exuberans, and 966-Kg142 formed lighter-colored mycelia, whereas M. dunali and M. vulgarius exhibited the darkest mycelial pigments. Sclerotia formation was compact, pale yellow to yellow, and abundant. In conclusion, molecular identification of Turkish morel cultures was performed, and cultural characteristics along with morphological differences were examined. The cultures have been deposited for further study in the Mushroom Gene Bank at the Atat & uuml;rk Central Horticultural Research Institute.