Due to difficulties in cultivation, commercial harvesting of wild morels has become a multimillion-dollar industry in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, in particular North America, Turkey, China, the Himalayas, India, and Pakistan where these highly prized fungi are found in abundance.

Current molecular phylogenetics suggest there might be over seventy species of Morchella worldwide, most of them exhibiting high continental endemism and provincialism.

The genus is currently the focus of extensive phylogenetic, biogeographical, taxonomical and nomenclatural studies, and several new species have been described from Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Israel, Spain, and Turkey.

Although false morels are sometimes eaten without ill effect, they can cause severe gastrointestinal upset, loss of muscular coordination (including cardiac muscle), or even death.

[18][19][20] Efforts to clarify the situation and re-evaluate old classical names (such as Morchella elata and others) in accordance to current phylogenetic data have been challenging, due to vague or ambiguous original descriptions and loss of holotype material.

Among early pioneers who took an interest in the genus, were mycologists Julius Vincenz von Krombholz and Émile Boudier, who, in 1834[25] and 1897[18] respectively, published several species and varieties, accompanied by meticulously illustrated iconographic plates.

The seminal taxon Morchella elata, whose true identity still remains unresolved,[21][12] was described by Elias Fries in 1822, from a fir forest in Sweden.

[28] Morchella purpurascens, the purple morel, was first described by Boudier as a variety of M. elata in 1897 based on an 1834 plate by Krombholz, and was recombined as a distinct species in 1985 by Emile Jacquetant.

[30] The old, widely applied name Morchella conica,[31] featuring in many field guides and literature across several countries, has been shown by Richard and colleagues to be illegitimate.

[21] An extensive taxonomical and nomenclatural revision of the genus provided by Richard and colleagues in 2014, applied names to 30 of the genealogical lineages recognized so far and clarified several synonymities.

[41][42][43] Subsequent multigenic DNA studies, however, have revealed more than a dozen genealogically distinct species in North America and at least as many in Europe.

[45] The fire-associated species Morchella tomentosa, commonly known as the "gray morel", is distinct for its fine hairs on the cap ridges and sclerotia-like underground structures, and may also deserve its own clade based on DNA evidence.

Following genetic testing of isotype collection of M. anatolica by Taşkın and colleagues, this species was shown to nest in the ancestral /Rufobrunnea clade, together with the transcontinental M. rufobrunnea.

[46] This cast doubts over the accuracy of the original reconstructions, since both species of the ancestral /Rufobrunnea clade are present in the Mediterranean, while M. anatolica is altogether absent from North America.

[22][38] Updated ancestral area reconstructions by Loizides and colleagues using an expanded 79-species data set, have in 2021 refuted the previous hypothesis and designated the Mediterranean basin as the most probable place of origin of morels.

So far, the list of transcontinental species includes M. americana, M. eohespera, M. eximia, M. exuberans, M. galilaea, M. importuna, M. populiphila, M. pulchella, M. rufobrunnea, M. semilibera, M. sextelata, M. steppicola, and M. tridentina.

Some authors have hypothesized that such transcontinental occurrences are the result of accidental anthropogenic introductions,[50][45] but this view has been disputed by others, who suggested an old and natural distribution, at least for some of these species which appear to be linked to indigenous flora.

[62] It has been suggested that the widespread but disjunct distribution of some morel species, especially early diverging lineages like M. rufobrunnea and M. tridentina, may be the result of climatic refugia from the Quaternary glaciation.

Certain Morchella species (M. eximia, M. importuna, M. tomentosa and others) exhibit a pyrophilic behaviour and may grow abundantly in forests which have been recently burned by a fire.

In 1901, Repin reported successfully obtaining fruit bodies in a cave in which cultures had been established in flower pots nine years previously in 1892.

One of the breakthroughs with this project was growing them in a climate controlled environment in conjunction with grass which is involved in stimulating fruiting in the morel mycelium.

Since washing morels can negatively impact the texture, reliable cultivation may result in more versatility with this ingredient in the kitchen as well as making the delicacy more affordable and accessible.

They have been called "prized delicacies...they are so esteemed in Europe that people used to set fire to their own forests in hopes of eliciting a bountiful morel crop the next spring!

Morels can be preserved in several ways: They can be 'flash frozen' by simply running under cold water or putting them in a bucket to soak for a few minutes, then spread on a baking tray and placed into a freezer.

Mushroom hunters sometimes recommend soaking morels in a bowl of salt water briefly prior to cooking, although many chefs would disagree.

[91] Morchella species have been called by many local names; some of the more colorful include dryland fish, because when sliced lengthwise then breaded and fried, their outline resembles the shape of a fish;[92] hickory chickens, as they are known in many parts of Kentucky; and merkels or miracles, based on folklore, of how a mountain family was saved from starvation by eating morels.

[93] The scientific name of the genus Morchella itself, is thought to have derived from morchel,[94] an old German word close to "Möhre", carrot or beet, due to similarity in shape.