Mushrooms are forest delicacies that make up well for the missing vitamins and minerals in the body. The most common are mushrooms in the Chelyabinsk region, which are collected by fans of "quiet hunting" all season in huge quantities.
Honey mushrooms in the Chelyabinsk region
General characteristics
Honey mushrooms belong to the 1st category of edibility (edible or certainly edible mushrooms) and grow in large groups, often forming rings. For this they are sometimes called "witch's mushrooms".
Description:
- the leg is thin and long;
- cap in the form of a dome in young individuals;
- the color of the cap is beige or dark brown;
- there is a characteristic film ring on the stem.
The slender leg reaches 12-15 cm in height. The hat changes its color from honey to pronounced brown. It is lamellar on the inside and has a delicate taste.
The honey agaric aroma is not strong, but pleasant.
Description of species
Honey mushrooms in Chelyabinsk are of different types:
- summer;
- spring;
- autumn;
- winter;
- fat-legged;
- meadow;
- field.
In this area, such species as slimy honey fungus, common garlic (nonnium, marasmius) and large garlic are rare.
Seasonal species grow only at certain times and have some differences.
Winter
In representatives of winter species, the caps are usually 2 to 8 cm in diameter and are bell-shaped. They are slightly sticky to the touch and have a reddish brown color. The leg is thin and stiff. This is their characteristic feature.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
A distinctive feature of the winter mushroom cap is a mucous membrane on the surface of a smooth yellowish cap with shades of reddish tones. In young specimens, it has curved edges with a general rounded-convex shape. As it grows, the cap transforms into a convex-open, and a brownish-yellow spot appears in the center. The leg reaches 8 cm in height with a maximum thickness of 9 mm. It is cylindrical, elastic and partially curved. Its color differs in sectors: at the top it is light (yellowish, yellowish-red - resembles the color of the cap), and below it is brownish and even black-brown, covered with hairs, velvety to the touch.
Flammulina velvety-footed belongs to the 4th category of edibility, which implies its mandatory preliminary heat treatment.
In Chelyabinsk, they appear during a break between frosts, at moments of rare thaws, right under the snow. Find them simply by brownish spots on white snow, where there are fallen tree trunks or old stumps.
Spring
Forest-loving colibia is called spring mushrooms from the honey agaric group. They belong to the edible members of the Gymnopus genus.
Often found in small groups on felled oaks or pines. Their legs are thin, reaching 10 cm in length. There is a slight thickening at the base.
Their hats become flat with age. The color of spring honey agaric is yellow-brown. The pulp is thin, has a whitish tint with yellowness. The aroma is weak. Mushroom characteristics:
- Fruiting occurs in April-May. Sometimes fruiting bodies appear under the last wet snow.
- Spring species can be found in November. Mushrooms give more than one harvest.
- This species has no poisonous counterparts, so it is safe to harvest.
Summer and autumn
Honey mushrooms yield three times a year
Summer and autumn are the most productive. There are especially many honey mushrooms during this period, which grow in large groups throughout the region.
Their description is similar:
- Caps reach 10 cm in diameter, convex with a characteristic brownish tinge.
- The lamellar part (hymenophore) is buffy or brownish.
- The long legs are often joined in aggregates, uniting up to 15-20 individuals.
A single organism of myceliums is located in stumps and on tree trunks. Summer species appear at the end of May and grow until September. And autumn ones are found until November.
The summer species has a poisonous twin - a fringed gallery, which is distinguished by a scaly leg.
Mushrooms in the Chelyabinsk Territory bring large harvests every 3 years. Beginners confuse the common edible species of autumn honey agarics with false honey agaric. In order not to get poisoned, it is important to pay attention to the color of the cap, which is bright red or brick in the poisonous organism. The pulp is bitter.
Meadows
Cloves, or meadows, are a completely edible variety of mushrooms from the mushroom group. It is found in the Chelyabinsk region both in forest zones and in fields, meadows or pastures. Sometimes they are collected near dwellings, on the outskirts of villages, in summer cottages or in coastal ditches.
Bears abundantly and grows in circles or rows forming an arc. Their legs are long and thin. Often curved and connected below with other individuals.
The hats are convex. Gradually they become flat and become uneven at the edges. After rain, their surface becomes sticky. Her color is red-brown.
The hymenophore is lamellar, light. The plates are located at frequent intervals, and therefore rarely. There is no thin film in the form of a girdle on the leg.
The aroma is pleasant, with a hint of clove.
Meadow has a poisonous twin belonging to the Govorushka clan. This is a furrowed talker, which has the following distinctive features:
- The cap of young mushrooms with a tucked edge is convex, in old ones it is flat or even depressed, reaches 2-6 cm in diameter. The color can be powdery-white, whitish-gray or even buffy. The skin is covered with an easily removable mealy coating. In dry weather, it is silky, but in wet weather, it is slimy.
- The pulp is thin, fibrous with an expressionless taste and a mealy odor.
- The leg is up to 4 cm long, in old ones it is hollow.
Fatleg
The Tolstopod is an edible parasitic species. It grows on dying spruce, fir or ash.
This saprophyte also grows well on last year's leaves. Its main difference from all other species is a beautiful thick brown leg, on which there is a whitish ring with gaps that look like stars. Because it occurs on such different food sources, it can be called a facultative xylophyte.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
Before in the state of Oregon, dark honey fungus was discovered, the mycelium of which "occupied" 880 hectares in the Malheur National Park in eastern Oregon, in the 1990s. an oak forest was found, almost all of whose trees were affected by the mycelium of the thickfoot honey fungus. The infected trees were felled and pine trees were planted in their place. However, practically immediately in the same year, honey mushrooms destroyed all plantings of seedlings. Molecular genetic studies and DNA analysis have confirmed the scientists' assumptions about the integrity of this "fungal organism". Calculations showed that the area of the mycelium growing in the soil was 15 hectares. According to approximate estimates of scientists, the mass of this giant mycelium is about 10 tons, and its age is about 1500 years. Compared to the Oregon monster mushroom, this mycelium is very young. However, he rightfully received the name "incredible mushroom" or "humongous fungus" at one time.
The cap is conical, reaches 10 cm. The edges of young individuals are bent towards the stem. Gradually the cap bends and becomes flat. The lamellar part is light. The pulp has an astringent taste and a cheese aroma.
Mushrooms in the forest. Mushroom places of the Chelyabinsk region.
In the forests of Chelyabinsk, the invasion of mushroom pickers
Honey mushrooms gone !!! August 2019.
Best mushroom spots
There are mushroom spots in any forest. In the Chelyabinsk region, about 200 species of honey agarics grow, including the common garlic and mucous honey fungus (mucous udemansiella).
In the summer in the South Urals mushrooms grow better in the Chelyabinsk region in the Sosnovsky district. Chelyabinsk residents have been collecting them for years at the same place near the villages of Butaki, Kremenkul and Kaigorodovo.
The Argayash region is considered the second fertile place. Here they often look for autumn views. Along the Ozersk-Kyshtym highway, without going far into the thicket, it is easy to collect a rich harvest of winter and autumn mushrooms and, along the way, pick up a basket of porcini mushrooms.
Near the villages of Sargazy and Kureinoe there are good places with mushrooms and boletus mushrooms.
Near the village of Argayash in the direction of the village of Novo-Sobolevo (Novoye Soboleva), on the right side of the lake, there is a large forest, in which there are many meadows with meadow mushrooms.
Fat-legged people are more often looked for in the village of Kasayan, which is located in the direction of the city of Kurgan, behind the railway track on the right, there is a forest. Without going far into the forest, it is easy to pick up several full baskets in it.
Conclusion
It will not be difficult to collect several full baskets of Honey mushrooms if you first prepare for the hike, find out where it is best to go, and take everything you need with you. It must be remembered that nature needs a careful attitude towards it, so you should not destroy myceliums, destroy unfamiliar types of forest organisms and kindle fires.