The forests of the Upper Volga region are full of mushrooms. Social media is inundated with photographs of whites, chanterelles, and boletuses: people bragging about their prey and measuring baskets. However, not everyone knows how to distinguish an edible mushroom from a poisonous one, therefore, together with white, a false white can get into the soup, and a toadstool can get into salting. Let’s learn how to identify insidious doubles.
The king of mushrooms and the pseudo-fighters
First of all, remember the main rule of the mushroom picker: if you doubt, don’t take it! Almost every edible mushroom has an inedible double that resembles it. It’s like with weeds: in peas, mouse peas grow, in parsley – saffron omezhnik (a deadly poisonous plant, by the way).
The mushroom king boletus also has its imitators. There are a dime a dozen of such pseudo-fighters, but almost all of them are far from the original: either they will not come out with their feet, then they will give themselves away with a hat. White’s main rival is false white. He learned to disguise himself as the king of mushrooms almost perfectly.
To figure out the impostor, you need to dismember him. Well, what: earlier in Russia they did this not only with mushrooms. False boletus (he is – bilious, he is hare, he is bitter) on the sections should change color – a reddish tint will appear. There is nothing for a true porcini mushroom to blush.
If you boil a traitor in a cauldron, the broth and everything in it will become rancid. The gall mushroom contains a lot of bitterness, so some mushroom pickers taste it to test it. The scheme is something like this: licked – winced – spat – threw out.
However, experts do not recommend dragging any byaka into your mouth. Gorchak, although it does not belong to poisonous mushrooms, but only to inedible ones, can still cause great harm to the body. The bitterness of the pseudo-boron is toxic – it hits the liver hard.
Redhead
If you put a frying pan with fried chanterelles on the table, it will overshadow all other delicacies. Chanterelle, although called “ordinary”, has an extraordinary taste and aroma! In addition, these mushrooms contain many vitamins and therefore are very useful.
The red-haired woman could not remain without envious people, so a false fox, or, as it is also called, an orange talker, comes on her heels in almost all forests. Let’s say right away: she can’t do much harm. Well, maximum will cause indigestion. In some countries, it is even considered conditionally edible. Although the talker is completely tasteless, and ugly.
The false chanterelle differs from its beautiful rival in a paler cap and a very thin leg. Her plates are bright orange with many bifurcations.
Pig ear
An inexperienced mushroom picker can confuse the king of pickling black milk with a pig (cow’s lip, pork ear, pork). This “good” is enough in all forests. Pigs grow in colonies. Therefore, any urban hipster who has gone mushrooming for the first time runs the risk of picking up a basket full of pigs. And then – to stretch your legs from poisoning.
The insidiousness of these poisonous mushrooms is that the symptoms usually do not appear immediately, but after several weeks or even months, when it is almost impossible to provide help. Pig contains toxins that are not destroyed by boiling. But this mushroom, like a sponge, absorbs any filth from the soil, including radioactive isotopes.
The pig was added to the list of poisonous relatively recently – in 1981. The USSR Ministry of Health made this decision after several deaths from poisoning with these mushrooms.
The pig really resembles a black mushroom in some way, although a good mushroom picker will never confuse them. She has the same short thick leg and a fleshy rounded cap. The piglet differs from the pork in its brown-reddish color.
Mycologists advise novice mushroom pickers to thoroughly study this mushroom at least from photographs on the Internet. However, when surfing the net, be vigilant: some gossips who got stuck with their heads in the last century share with the people the recipes for “how to cook delicious pigs”. And they even give advice “on removing toxins from mushrooms.”
Parasites in skirts
Honey mushrooms. Only confident mushroom pickers can afford to pick these mushrooms. The rest run the risk of typing grebes instead of honey agarics. They are very similar to each other: faded, skinny and in skirts. In addition, they grow in the same places – on stumps and fallen trees.
The gray-yellow false froth is especially dangerous. Unlike many other imitators, it is poisonous. Bastard gives out a strong unpleasant smell – do not mess with a stinker. And remember, edible species are never colorful. We will not now talk about the scales on the caps and the color of the plates – all these are secondary things. Remember the main rule of the mushroom picker? That’s right: in doubt, don’t take it.
By the way, honey agarics are real parasites. The fungus invades living trees and drinks all the juices from them. When the tree orders to live long, the parasite continues to grow on dead wood, continuing to destroy it. Then the mycelium of the fungus grows under the forest floor.
The formed mycelium of the honey fungus is visible to the naked eye and looks like the roots of trees. In this state, the fungus is looking for a new victim, releasing thin infectious hyphae – strings in all directions. It is clear that finding a tree in the forest is a simple matter.
One mycelium can infect many trees and spread over a huge area. And some species, for example, autumn honey fungus, can also reproduce with the help of spores – this is the main way of populating mushrooms on stumps and already dead trees.
Honey mushroom easily enters gardens and devours fruit trees, attacks fences, launches its long legs into houses and sheds. Therefore, do not rush to rejoice if you find a family of honey agarics at your dacha.
At the same time, this mushroom performs an important mission in the forest – it accelerates the death of old weakened trees and destroys dead wood, making room for healthy youngsters. This ensures normal forest regeneration.
And one more thing: honey mushrooms are very tasty mushrooms. They can be fried, salted and baked with potatoes in the oven. And if you pickle a tree eater, you will have an excellent snack.
Baba Yaga in a green hat
Now hold your breath: we will talk about her – the pale toadstool, Baba Yaga among the mushrooms. This lady is as poisonous as an adder. Walk around it for three miles and in no case touch it!
Unfortunately, in the Tver forests, the pale toadstool can be found everywhere. For some reason, on the forums of mushroom pickers, they call her “poisonous beauty.” However, in our opinion, she is not a beauty at all, but a real hag: she stands on a fat leg in a torn skirt and a pale green hat on top.
In order not to run into this toadstool, many, even seasoned mushroom pickers do not take russula with a greenish cap. And rightly so: death from poisoning with a pale toadstool is inevitable and painful. Moreover, heat treatment does not destroy the toxins contained in this mushroom.
This is how mushroom guides describe a rough picture of poisoning. Symptoms do not appear immediately, but only after 6 hours or even two days. Indomitable vomiting, unquenchable thirst, cholera-like diarrhea, and acute abdominal pain begin. Death occurs within 10 days after poisoning from toxic hepatitis and acute cardiovascular failure.
By the way, the pale grebe is from the genus of amanita. But you can probably identify them.
Important recommendations
As the “MK in Tver” was informed in the department of “Rospotrebnadzor” in the Tver region, not only inedible mushrooms are dangerous, but also improperly cooked edible ones, as well as those collected near industrial zones, highways and railways.
If you are walking mushrooms with children, keep them in sight and watch what they put in your basket. And warn not to rub your eyes with your hands, especially if you have touched the weight before.
After going into the forest, the mushrooms need to be sorted out on the same day and again carefully revised. Throw away the wormy, overripe and flabby, specify in the department. “Rospotrebnadzor” does not advise buying mushrooms from random people in cut and dried form, as well as boiled, salted, pickled and canned mushrooms. Do not buy homemade mushroom caviar from your hands.
And when purchasing mushrooms in stores, you need to pay attention to the integrity of the packaging and the date of manufacture. Refuse the purchase if the product does not have an information label.