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Avid mushroom hunters will tell you that fire is essential for finding morels. These fungi, distinguishable for their dark, honeycomblike caps, pop out of the ground by the bushel in spring after a large wildfire.

This ecological knowledge is mostly anecdotal, shared among morel enthusiasts for recreational hunts and commercial harvesting, in what is now a multimillion-dollar, worldwide industry. Yet few scientific studies have actually quantified morels' abundance after a fire.

A paper published Oct. 1 in the journal Forest Ecology and Management is one of only a handful of reports documenting and analyzing the patterns of morel growth following a wildfire. The research was led by the University of Montana, with co-authors from the University of Washington and other institutions.

The part of the mushroom you pick and eat is actually its fruit. Most of the fungus lives underground as a connected, threadlike structure known as mycelium. Certain conditions such as fire prompt some species of morels to fruit, but their affinity for fire and other environmental factors is largely a mystery.