Types of false mushrooms: photo, description, difference from edible mushrooms

Fruit bodies are found both in the wild and in the household. And honey mushrooms are no exception - their mycelium multiplies quickly enough and continues to live for several years. Therefore, they are so convenient to collect in the forest or plant artificially. And besides, “hunting” for honey mushrooms is a real pleasure, because it is a “collective” mushroom that cannot stand loneliness and grows in groups in one small area. However, along with edible mushrooms there are also false representatives who can harm health and even threaten life.

In mushrooming, the main thing is not to rush, and also pay attention to the appearance and smell of fruiting bodies. Every lover of the “silent hunt” should take an important rule as a basis: “If you doubt it, don’t take it!” If you ignore it, then the risk of putting a false wrap in your basket increases immediately. Experiments in this case can play a trick on you. You need to collect only those mushrooms in which you are completely sure. To do this, you need to familiarize yourself with how to identify false and normal mushrooms mushrooms.

In nature, there are several types of false mushrooms that can be confused with edible. Among them, the most common are the honey foams sulfur-yellow and brick-red. Their hats are painted in a brighter color, while real representatives have noticeable soft and nondescript shades of the fruiting body. The following photos and descriptions of false honey mushrooms will tell you in more detail about these features.

What is the difference between false sulfuric yellow honey agaric and edible species

This type of fruiting body is a dangerous “guest” in your basket. If the mushroom that you want to put in your basket even remotely resembles a sulfur-yellow honey agaric, it is better to abandon it. Since this mushroom is considered poisonous, you must definitely know how false mushrooms differ from edible ones.

Latin name: Hypholoma fasciculare.

Gender: Hypholoma.

Family: Strophariaceae.

Hat: with a diameter of 3-7 cm, in young - bell-shaped. With age, it changes and becomes prostrate, acquiring a shape resembling an open umbrella. The color corresponds to the name: gray-yellow, yellow-brown. The center of the cap is darker (sometimes reddish-brown), the edges are lighter.

Leg: flat, cylindrical, up to 10 cm high and up to 0.5 cm thick. Hollow, fibrous, light yellow.

Pulp: light yellow or whitish, with a pronounced unpleasant odor and a bitter taste.

Records: thin, densely located, often adhered to the leg. At a young age, the plates are sulfur-yellow, then they acquire a greenish tint, and in the end they become olive-black.

Pay attention to the photo, where you can see how the honey mushrooms look false sulfur-yellow:

Edibility: poisonous mushroom. When eaten, it causes poisoning, up to fainting.

Spread: practically throughout the territory of the Russian Federation, except for permafrost zones. It grows in whole groups from mid-June to early October. It is found on decaying deciduous and coniferous trees.It also grows on stumps and soil near the roots of trees.

What does a false brick-red mushroom look like (with photo)

Another representative of false species of honey mushrooms, on the edibility of which it is impossible to come to a consensus. In our territory, it is considered poisonous, while in Canada, Italy and Germany, brick red mushrooms are freely consumed. Its description will help to see how false mushrooms differ from edible mushrooms.

Latin name: Hypholoma sublateritium.

Gender: Hypholoma.

Family: Strophariaceae.

Hat: round-convex, spherical, prostrate with age. From 4 to 8 cm in diameter (sometimes up to 12 cm), thick, fleshy, red-brown, less often yellow-brown. The center of the cap is darker, and at the edges you can often notice white flakes - the remains of a private bedspread.

Leg: smooth, dense and fibrous, as it grows older it becomes hollow and curved. Up to 10 cm in length and 1-1.5 cm in thickness. The upper part is bright yellow, the lower part is red-brown.

Pulp: dense, whitish or dirty yellow, bitter in taste and unpleasant in smell.

This type of fruiting body can be clearly seen in the photo showing the false and normal mushrooms mushrooms:

Records: frequent, narrow-growing, light gray or yellow-gray. With age, the color changes to gray-olive, sometimes with a purple tint.

Edibility: It is popularly considered a poisonous mushroom, although in most sources of mushrooms brick red is considered to be conditionally edible mushroom.

Spread: Eurasia and North America. It grows on decaying stumps, branches and trunks of deciduous trees.

How to distinguish false mushrooms from normal edible ones (with photos and videos)

First of all, you need to thoroughly prepare to know which mushrooms you have encountered in the forest - false or not, and how to recognize them among the edible representatives of fruiting bodies? The main trick of all false mushrooms lies in the following: they grow in the same places and in the same seasons as edible ones. Sometimes they even intertwine with each other on stumps, branches and trunks of fallen trees.

Color

In fact, a poisonous mushroom is not so difficult to distinguish from the present. To do this, you should carefully consider its appearance. As already mentioned, edible mushrooms have a more "modest" color, as opposed to false ones. Often, the latter are immediately evident, because their hats are painted in brick red, honey brown and orange. However, this is not all signs of false mushrooms.

Skirt

The first and most important difference that you need to pay attention to is the presence of a ring-skirt on the leg of the fruiting body. All species of edible mushrooms necessarily have such a ring, but false representatives do not have such a characteristic feature. Pay attention to the photo, where you can see how to distinguish false mushrooms from real ones by the presence of a skirt ring:

However, it should be noted that adults and overgrown specimens may lose this trait. Therefore, in this case, it is worth paying attention to other known differences.

Smell

The next important difference between false and edible mushrooms is the smell. Just cut the mushroom or slightly break the hat: a real honey agar has a pleasant aroma, which can not be said about false species. The latter emit the smell of mold, soil and grass.

We also suggest watching a video about false and edible mushrooms:

How else to recognize whether false mushrooms or not: distinguishing features

Flakes

Caps of real honey mushrooms are fully or partially covered with scales, while false honey mushrooms have completely smooth hats. An exception is the winter honey agaric, but during the fruiting season (winter) it is impossible to meet other types of fruiting bodies. However, do not forget that as they grow older, such mushrooms disappear in real mushrooms.

Records

Look under the caps of collected mushrooms: in edible species, the plates have a delicate cream or white-yellow color, while the plates of the false representatives are painted in a dirty yellow or yellow shade. With age, the plates of inedible mushrooms become greenish or dirty brown.

Check out a few more photos of the false and edible mushrooms to determine how to distinguish them by their appearance:

Taste

The flesh of false honey agarics for the most part has a bitter taste. However, to try them and even more so to bite off a piece to determine whether you can take it to your basket is highly not recommended! The signs described above should be enough to understand exactly how to behave with one kind or another of the fruiting body.

A mushroom picker with experience can immediately determine the edibility of the fungus, but novice fans of the "quiet hunt" should be very careful to apply the knowledge!