Differences between false autumn mushrooms and edible mushrooms
Autumn honey mushrooms grow almost throughout Russia in deciduous and coniferous forests, whose age is more than 30 years. About 200 species of trees, including rotten stumps, roots and felled trunks, choose honey mushrooms as their habitat. Mushroom pickers, knowing where to look for autumn mushrooms, can pick these mushrooms in the same places for 10-15 years in a row.
However, collecting these fruiting bodies, you need to remember safety precautions: the edible mushroom has a poisonous double - autumn mushroom.
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How to distinguish normal autumn mushrooms from false sulfur yellow
Some normal autumn mushrooms, honey mushrooms and false counterparts are very similar. The false inedible relative of this honey agaric belongs to the genus Hypholus and Psatirella. Some are considered inedible, while others are completely poisonous. If you do not know which mushroom you are putting in the basket, it is better not to risk it and abandon the idea of taking it with you. Therefore, before you go to the forest for mushrooms, it is important to study the photo and description of false autumn mushrooms.
Sulfur-yellow false foal is considered a poisonous mushroom that looks like autumn mushrooms.
Latin name: Hypholoma fasciculare.
Family: Strophariaceae.
Gender: Hyphole.
Synonyms: Agaricus fascicularis, Naematoloma fascicularis.
Hat: diameter from 2 to 7 cm, bell-shaped, in adulthood becomes prostrate with yellow-brown or sulfur-yellow color. The edges of the cap are much lighter, and the center is almost red-brown. In this case, the difference between autumn mushrooms and false mushrooms is clearly visible on the hat.
Leg: fibrous, even and hollow. Length is up to 10 cm, thickness up to 0.5 cm, light yellow in color.
Pulp: very bitter and has an unpleasant odor. The color of the pulp is whitish or light yellow.
Records: thin and frequent, attached to the leg. At a young age, they have a sulfur-yellow color, then they become greenish and even black-olive.
Edibility: poisonous mushroom.
Spread: grows in large colonies on old dying trees, rotten stumps of deciduous and coniferous trees. Often settles on lying trunks, broken branches and near the roots.
Harvest Season: peak occurs at the end of August and September.
Description and photos of false autumn mushrooms mushrooms will help you identify these dangerous doubles.
What the false autumn mushrooms of Psatirella Candoll look like (with photos)
Another false honey agaric that looks like a real autumn mushroom is the false foil Psatirella Candoll.
Latin name: Psathyrella candolleana.
Family: Psatirella.
Gender: Psatirella.
Synonyms: Psathyra candolleanus, Agaricus candolleanus.
Hat: at a young age, hemispherical, in adulthood - bell-shaped.Then the hat opens and becomes almost flat with a tubercle in the middle. The diameter of the hat is from 3 to 9 cm with wavy edges that often crack. The top of the caps in young mushrooms is covered with small scales that quickly disappear. The hats themselves dry quickly and become very brittle. Color ranges from yellow to creamy white or almost dull.
Leg: thickness up to 0.6, sometimes 0.8 cm, height up to 10 cm. Has a thickened base of white or cream color. The surface of the legs is smooth, under the hat fluffy with the remains of the bedspread in the form of hanging flakes.
Pulp: fragile, white, thin, odorless and tasteless.
Records: narrow, dense and adhered to the leg. Young specimens have a whitish color of the plates, which in the process of growth changes to violet-gray, and then turns into dark brown.
Edibility: poisonous mushroom, sometimes referred to as conditionally edible.
Spread: grows in large colonies on deciduous trees, on rotten stumps or on the ground near stumps and trunks.
Harvest Season: from May to the end of October.
We offer to see how to distinguish false mushrooms from autumn thanks to the presented photo?
It is worth noting that false species of honey agarics grow in the same places as edible ones - these are raw fallen trees, trunks of fallen trees, stumps and even living trees. Therefore, novice mushroom pickers can make a mistake and collect a false appearance. It is photographs of false autumn mushrooms that will help to understand mushrooms well and to know all the signs of these dangerous doubles.
Often, many attribute false species of honey mushrooms to conditionally edible fruit bodies, only of poor quality. To prepare them you need to have enough skills, but in this case, the safety of mushrooms is not proven.
What false autumn mushrooms look like - see the photo showing all the differences. And the main difference is the ring-skirt on the leg of the mushroom, or rather its absence. Poisonous mushrooms do not have such a ring.
There are other differences that help to choose only real edible autumn mushrooms. For example, smell: all pseudopods have a mushroom unpleasant odor. False hats are always of brighter colors, which will indicate the toxicity of the carrier of this species. None of the false feathers have flakes on their hats. In addition, the plates of such mushrooms are greenish or olive in color, smoothly turning to an almost black hue.
There is another difference - the bitter taste of the mushroom, although experts strongly recommend that you do not taste the mushrooms.
Having compared all the presented photos of autumn false and edible mushrooms, you can safely go to the forest for mushrooms. But even if you are still not sure about the edibility of the mushroom - do not take it into your basket.
Watch also video how to distinguish autumn mushrooms from false representatives:
