This page lists only South Dakota (and Midwest) mushrooms that have stems with atypical caps. If you want to identify other types of mushrooms such as those with a cap and gills, spherical mushrooms, mushrooms with pores, shelf mushrooms, etc. please start on the main mycology page:
Helvella Crispa
Habitat: ground near deciduous trees, saprobe???
Spore Print: white
Season: summer through fall
Notes: I’ve only found this little elfin saddle mushroom one time. Location was inside Sioux Falls near a wooded hiking trail in August of 2022
Morchella Esculentoides
Habitat: ash trees & recently dead elms, mycorrhizal
Spore Print: creamy white
Season: spring
Notes: This mushroom is truly delicious and totally worth the hunting effort! Previously known as Morchella Esculenta. Midsummer of 2021 two friends convinced me to go morel hunting at this hot & itchy forest. The only thing we gained from that experience is the knowledge that morels rarely pop up outside of spring season. In 2022 I found about 40 morels over a three week period. The first one was a complete accident, haha:
Morchella Prava
Habitat: hardwoods near sandy lakes & rivers, mycorrhizal
Spore Print: creamy white
Season: spring
Notes: sooooooo good.
Phallus Impudicus
Habitat: saprophytic. woods, fields, gardens, woodchips
Spore Print: creamy white
Season: summer to early fall
Notes: Commonly known as the “Stinkhorn Mushroom”. The smell is truly horrifying. This is one of the first mushrooms that I ever ran into when I began mushroom hunting and I thought it could be a morel. It had a hollow stem and a brain-like structure on the top. But Phallus Impudicus fruits from a slimy egg-like structure, has a much longer stem, and smells like death. Definitely NOT a morel. With that said, Mushrooms Demystified said the eggs can be fried up and swallowed. You can see what happened when I tried it myself:
South Dakota Fungi 