There are false honey mushrooms. Honey mushrooms, false and edible: how to distinguish by smell, color and appearance
Everyone knows the cost of making a mistake when picking mushrooms. Their poisonous representatives, consumed as food, can cause severe poisoning, therefore, when collecting them, special care must be taken. Can be misleading false honey mushrooms, externally very similar to the real thing.
These forest gifts have plenty of “doubles”. Because of external resemblance It is very difficult to recognize them as edible representatives. To do this you need to know the main distinctive features, tricks and secrets from experienced mushroom pickers, which will help you not to make mistakes.
Places and times of growth
Representatives of this variety are among the most common in our latitudes.
You can find edible gifts of nature in any forest that is older than 30 years. There are more than 200 species of trees on which they can grow. Usually the latter occupy dry trunks, stumps, dead wood, roots, and tree trunks.
The most common types of their growth are birch, pine, oak, and spruce.
They destroy dead wood, so they are considered forest orderlies. In the same place, these gifts of the forest can grow for no more than 15 years, during which mycelium of both edible and false mushrooms destroy the wood.
They grow very abundantly, so you can collect several kilos from one stump. If the mushrooms are young and their cap has not yet opened, they are collected with legs, and if they have already grown, they are collected without legs, since the latter have neither taste nor nutritional value.
Experienced mushroom pickers who “hunt” in the same places know that it is not worth collecting honey mushrooms from the “roots”, since the mycelium can be damaged. If you remove them correctly, it will bear fruit for many more years.
In total, there are more than 30 species of these representatives of their kingdom. This list includes both false honey mushrooms and summer, winter and autumn honey mushrooms, which are edible.
All of them live in forests, and only one variety - meadow - is found, accordingly, in meadows.
Characteristics of edible representatives
Nevertheless, meadow honey mushrooms can be distinguished from false ones, and here’s how to do it. The talker mushroom does not have a tubercle on the cap, and in the colibia, when you cut the flesh, you can smell an unpleasant odor, whereas in a real mushroom it resembles cloves or almonds.
"Doubles"
What representatives can the real one be confused with? forest dweller "? Here are the most common ones:
- Sulfur yellow. They grow on stumps, as well as near them, and can be found on the trunks of rotting trees. The growth period is May – October. They can be found in the form of clustered groups or in columns. The diameter of each cap is 6 cm. They themselves look like this. In young representatives it is convex, its edges are slightly curved, and over time a tubercle appears on it. Their lower part is shrouded in a web in the form of a blanket. As for the pulp, it is different unpleasant smell and sulfur-yellow color. Its structure is elastic, watery;
- Seroplate. They usually occupy the roots and stumps of rotten trees. You can meet them in the forest from late summer to mid-autumn. These false mushrooms can be distinguished by the way their legs look. It is thin and long. The lower part of the cap is convex and is covered with a blanket. In a grown-up forest gift, the cap straightens, and its diameter increases to 8 cm. A young mushroom has a light yellow color, and a mature one is rusty-brown;
- Brick red. They occupy rotten stumps or dead wood. They grow mainly in coniferous and deciduous forests, although they can be found in mountainous and flat areas. They grow throughout almost the entire year, with the exception of winter cold. These false honey mushrooms are characterized round shape caps when they are young, and as they mature it takes on a hemispherical shape. Its lower side is shrouded in a web in the form of a blanket, which may disappear over time. Mushrooms do not have any smell; their stalk is empty, which is their main difference. The cap plates have a yellowish color, which gives way to olive, then chocolate.
Criteria for distinction
Eat general rules choice. They will tell you how not to make mistakes and distinguish false honey mushrooms from real ones:
- Smell. This aroma is called mushroom, but beginners may not know what it should be like, so you need to focus on personal sensations. The smell of real forest products should be pleasant. In the case of false ones, it smells like rot, wet earth, and often mold;
- Color. Inedible gifts nature can be too bright, beautiful color. Among the real representatives of this kingdom it is not so rich;
- Scales. The cap of edible honey mushrooms is covered with them, unlike their false representatives, which are also distinguished by the smoothness of the upper part. True, based on this criterion, you need to remember that with age, even adult real mushrooms can lose scales;
- Records. False mushrooms have bright yellow, greenish or dark olive plates, while edible mushrooms have a creamy tint;
- Skirt. It is believed that this is the most important criterion of difference. The real mushroom has a skirt, which the false one does not have. However, it must be taken into account that in adults edible gifts nature, it can also disappear with age.
Taste false mushrooms They are bitter and unpleasant, but you don’t need to try them - try to get your bearings, taking into account all the other criteria.
Honey mushrooms are very popular mushrooms. They grow in families and most often around stumps. Hence the name.
Honey mushrooms: photo and description
Around one stump you can collect a basket full of these useful and delicious mushrooms. They contain substances such as:
- proteins;
- cellulose;
- amino acids;
- vitamins C, B, E, PP;
- microelements (iron, phosphorus, zinc, potassium, etc.);
- natural sugars.
There are many types of honey mushrooms found in nature. All of them differ from each other both in appearance and in the composition of useful vitamin elements:
![](https://i1.wp.com/devochki.guru/wp-content/auploads/301625/rastut_opyata.jpg)
Edible and false honey mushrooms, how to distinguish them
Let's give a description of several types of edible mushrooms:
Summer honey fungus- a medium-sized mushroom with a stem height of up to 8 cm and a diameter of up to 1 cm. The stem is light and smooth on top, and covered with dark scales below. On the leg there is a brown skirt, not wide, which disappears completely over time. hat young mushroom It looks convex, has a diameter of up to 5 cm, becomes flat with growth, but a light tubercle remains in the middle. The color of the cap is yellow, darkening towards the edges. The plates are light, but also darken over time.
Summer honey mushrooms grow colonies mainly on deciduous trees, love rotten and damaged wood. Appear already in mid-spring and at favorable conditions They breed all summer, autumn, right up to frost. The mushrooms taste tender, with a smell young tree. These edible mushrooms often confused with their poisonous counterparts, which have biological name“marginated galerina” or “marginata galerina”. We must remember that these poisonous mushrooms have no scales at the bottom of the stem, which is why they differ from their edible counterparts.
The color of the cap is different and depends on the tree on which the autumn honey fungus grew (yellow on poplar, brown on oak, gray on elderberry, coniferous trees– red-brown). The plates of the mushroom are beige, gradually darken, and dotted with brownish spots.
Autumn honey mushrooms appear closer to autumn, around the end of August. Fruiting depends on the climate of the region and lasts approximately 3 weeks. The mushroom is tasty, aromatic, its flesh is dense and white, in the stem with tangible fibers. These honey mushrooms are saprophytes, growing on rotten stumps, dead wood, broken branches, providing them with a night glow.
Royal honey fungus(golden flake). Your name king mushrooms completely justified. Their caps reach up to 20 cm in diameter, and the height of the stem can be more than 12 cm. The stem has a skirt that disappears over time. The color of the cap varies, from rusty yellow to dirty golden color. The entire surface of the mushroom is covered with reddish flakes. These are autumn mushrooms. They grow in small clusters. They are found in both deciduous and coniferous forests.
Mushroom pickers do not always collect them; they are considered inedible, although the taste of royal mushrooms is no different from the popular ones autumn species. Before use, the flakes must be boiled in salt water for at least 30 minutes. They have an excellent taste, they are used in appetizers, salads, first and second courses, salted, pickled, dried and frozen.
Winter honey fungus- grows on weak, damaged deciduous trees, most often on poplars and willows. The presence of the fungus further destroys their wood. Nevertheless, the winter honey fungus is quite edible, has a leg from 2 to 7 cm long, up to 1 cm in diameter, dense structure and velvety brown color, with yellowness on top. But there is no skirt on the leg.
The cap of a young winter honey fungus is convex, almost flat with age, with a diameter of 2 to 10 cm. The color can be yellow, brown or orange. The plates are white or ocher. The pulp is white or yellowish. Growing in large groups from autumn and all winter, easily detected during thaw in thawed areas. This type must be boiled for a long time before consumption and at least twice, since it contains a small proportion of toxins, which become harmless during heat treatment.
Thick-legged honey fungus. Grows on damaged spruce, fir, beech, and ash. Often grows on fallen leaves and dust. The stem is low, straight, and thicker at the bottom, shaped like a bulb. The color of the leg up to the ring-skirt is dark, and higher up to the cap it is white or gray. The skirt is well defined, with dark scales and torn edges.
The cap is cone-shaped, with curled edges, flat and downward with age. The color of young mushrooms is beige, brown or pink. The cap has scales in the middle gray. The plates under the cap are frequent, light, and eventually dark. The diameter of the cap is from 2 to 10 cm. The pulp is astringent, light, with a cheese flavor.
Spring honey fungus. This edible mushroom grows in small groups on dead wood and decaying foliage, in pine or oak forests. Its leg is elastic, up to 9 cm long, smooth, with a thickened base. The cap of young mushrooms is convex, eventually becoming broadly convex or flat. The color at first is dark orange (brick), and when mature it becomes yellow-brown. The plates under the cap are frequent, white, with yellowish or pink tint. The pulp is light (white with yellowish tint). Spring honey mushrooms are distributed throughout almost the entire temperate zone.
Honey fungus- a soil saprophyte growing in meadows, fields, ditches and ravines. A very prolific species. The mushroom has a thin and long stalk, widened at the bottom, often curved, up to 10 cm high and up to 0.5 cm in diameter. The color of the stem and the cap are the same. The cap of a young mushroom is convex, while that of an adult is flat with a pimple in the middle, and the edges are uneven. In wet weather, the skin of the cap becomes sticky, red or Brown. In dry weather, the cap is light, larger towards the edges, darker in the center. The skirt is missing.
The light flesh of the mushroom tastes sweet, with a taste of almonds. Meadow honey mushrooms are found throughout Eurasia, grow from May to October, tolerate drought well, coming to life after a rainstorm and again ready to produce new colonies of mushrooms. This mushroom has a double, a conditionally edible mushroom culture called “wood-loving collibia” is very similar to it. The difference between them is that the colibia has a tubular, empty leg and the mushroom has an unpleasant odor. And also, one cannot confuse the meadow honey fungus with the poisonous “furrowed talker”; it has a white cap without an upper tubercle, with frequent mealy scales (plates).
Description of the conditionally edible species honey mushrooms
Pine honey fungus. This conditionally edible mushroom Some mushroom pickers consider it dangerous because it has a bitter taste and a sour or even woody putrefactive smell. The cap of the young species is convex, with aging it becomes flat, up to 15 cm in diameter. The surface of the cap is covered with small red scales. The pulp is yellowish in color, fibrous in the stem, dense in the cap. The leg is usually curved, thick at the base, and empty (hollow) in the middle and upper parts.
What do false mushrooms look like?
It seems that everything is known about edible honey mushrooms and it is not difficult to recognize them. U edible mushroom thin and long stem (up to 12–15 cm), color from light beige or yellow to brown (depending on age and growth conditions). Not all, but many species have a ring-skirt and a plate-like cap, often rounded downwards. U she looks young and has a convex shape, with small scales, and with age it becomes flat or umbrella-shaped and smooth. The color of the cap varies from light cream to red-brown tones.
To distinguish inedible mushroom from something edible, you have to look closely and smell it. Here is some description of false poisonous mushrooms:
- False mushrooms have a cylindrical stem and do not have a ring with a skirt.
- The hat is painted in a bright, but not joyful color.
- The colors of the plates under the cap of false mushrooms are yellow, greenish, sometimes brown, but seem to be dirty.
- The smell of poisonous mushrooms rotten, earthy.
They repel the mushroom picker with all their appearance and seem to shout “don’t put me in the basket.” Therefore, any experienced forester will feel that such a mushroom is not suitable for food and should be kept away from it. But the whole trick of poisonous mushrooms is that they are located next to edible ones. Moreover, they intertwine with them on stumps and trunks of rotten trees. Therefore, be careful, because anyone can make a mistake when picking mushrooms. It’s better to carefully study the mushrooms first.
Autumn honey mushrooms- a friendly mushroom, cannot stand loneliness and always grows large families, for which there is little space on the ground and they climb onto stumps and the base of trees.
October - the month of rains - is his favorite month, the weather is cloudy and already quite cold, the earth, sky, foliage, the whole world are saturated with water.
And now it’s time for little mushroom caps to appear at the rotten stump. strong and resilient with motley specks and pretty " skirt" under the hat They gradually fill the entire forest, grow, open their caps, and prepare seeds. Honey mushrooms are not afraid of the cold; they grow until the first frost, in warm year they can be picked even in November.
Search for Autumn Honey Fungus needed where there is a lot of old, dead wood, on stumps and fallen trees, in thickets alders, aspen
Be sure that this mushroom will make you not only bow to Mother Earth, but also crawl along it on all fours, cutting off forest crops.
Taste and smell These simple mushrooms exceed all expectations; they are great for wrapping them in jars for the winter, for frying, and for soup. It’s just that drying them for the winter is problematic, they are like everyone else. autumn forest soaked in rain and morning dew, when you try to dry them they often begin to mold.
Details:
Where does the Autumn Honey fungus grow?
They grow on both dead and living trees, but they especially love birch. The expanse for autumn honey mushrooms is old birch forests with dry birch trees, on which honey mushrooms grow at a height of up to 5 m and higher, swampy birch forests with many lying trunks and stumps, birch clearings with stumps, swampy alder forests.
On coniferous trees, Autumn Honey Mushrooms are less common.
What does Autumn Honey fungus look like?
hat Autumn Honey fungus gray-yellowish or dirty brown with thin brown scales that disappear with age. The plates attached to the stem are white in young honey fungus, then become brownish-yellow.
Leg of Autumn Honey fungus long, thin, thickened at the bottom, with a membranous whitish ring in the upper part.
Autumn Honey fungus spores white
Autumn honey fungus - collection time
Collected in September - October. The period of abundant growth is short, usually about two weeks, most often this occurs in the first half of September.
How to distinguish Autumn Honey mushrooms from false ones
False honey mushrooms include several types of mushrooms that are very similar to edible honey mushrooms.
1. Autumn Orchard on his leg film ring. And all false honey mushrooms have bare legs to the toes.
2. The false honey fungus has a smooth cap, without “scales”
3. Hats false mushrooms are more brightly, loudly colored:
4. Records in false mushrooms they are yellow, greenish or olive-black. The Autumn Honey fungus has cream or yellowish-white plates.
(A - Autumn honey mushrooms. B, C - False honey mushrooms)
5. The smell of autumn mushrooms- pleasant mushroom, false mushrooms emit an unpleasant earthy smell.
How is Autumn Honey fungus useful?
There is almost the same amount of phosphorus and calcium in Autumn Honey mushrooms as in fish. They also contain vitamin B2, C, E, PP, magnesium, sodium, potassium and iron.
Nutritional value of honey mushrooms: squirrels- 2.2 g, fats - 1.2 g, carbohydrates - 0.5 g
Honeycomb contains mass of anticancer substances.
How to store Autumn Honey mushrooms
Autumn Honey mushrooms are salted, pickled, boiled and fried.
You need to cook honey mushrooms for 30-40 minutes. Undercooked honey mushrooms can cause indigestion
Autumn Honey mushrooms - interesting facts
Growing on stumps, they can be the cause of a curious phenomenon - glow of tree stumps at night! It is not the stumps themselves that glow, nor the rotting wood, but the mycelium of honey mushrooms, entwining a thin network around the entire stump.
All mushroom connoisseurs know how tasty honey mushrooms are when fried, pickled or in any other form: mushroom soup, caviar, pies. But in order for the food to be a great success and not lead to unpleasant consequences, it is important to know how to distinguish honey mushrooms from false honey mushrooms.
Let's learn to understand the differences between real honey mushrooms and their unsafe relatives in order to protect ourselves and loved ones from poisoning.
Everyone is called honey mushrooms lamellar mushrooms with caps, growing on trees, dead wood and stumps. Some of them are edible, aromatic and tasty, others are bitter and dangerous to health, and sometimes life. Let's look at the main differences between real honey mushrooms and false ones, which are visible to the naked eye and will be understandable even to inexperienced mushroom pickers.
Honey mushroom leg
There is a ring on the leg. Inedible honey mushrooms do not have a ring or have residual signs of it (traces of the ring, tissue fragments). In addition, the leg of a real honey mushroom is low (except for adult specimens) - 4-6 cm, while a false one reaches 10 cm.
The exception is edible meadow mushrooms, whose legs grow up to 30 cm tall!
Honey fungus records
Genuine honey mushrooms are distinguished by pale yellow or cream plates, false ones - yellow, later - green, dark olive and almost black.
Honey mushroom hat
Regardless of the environment in which they grow (light or dense forest, wet or dry place), their caps are not very bright: they are usually pale brown, with small dark scales (adult mushrooms have darker caps and no scales).
And the caps of false mushrooms are always bright: yellow-gray, rusty-red or red-brown, and without scales.
Taste of honey mushroom
Some false mushrooms are no less tasty than genuine honey mushrooms: not all poisonous mushrooms have a bitter taste. But this does not mean that they can be safely cooked: there are only a couple of exceptions - Candoll honey fungus and poppy honey fungus.
The smell of honey fungus
Edible honey mushrooms have a pleasant, pungent mushroom aroma, while poisonous ones smell like mold or damp earth.
Honey mushroom's reaction to contact with water
If you have doubts about the authenticity of a mushroom, put it in water: false mushrooms will turn black or blue.
Summer honey mushrooms, unlike their autumn counterparts, can bear fruit in spring, summer, and autumn. Summer honey mushrooms, as a rule, grow long legs and large caps. How to distinguish them from poisonous mushrooms?
- Summer honey fungus hat. Although its diameter is sometimes 10 cm, its walls are thin and the edges are slightly curved inward, where the tissue of the fungus resembles a spider's web. The color of the hat is yellowish-brown, there are scales.
- Summer honey fungus records. The color of the plates of genuine honey fungus is whitish, rusty or brown (they darken as the mushroom grows).
- Leg of summer honey fungus. Sometimes its leg grows extremely long - up to 30 cm, but at the same time remains brown, with a ring.
![](https://i0.wp.com/agroflora.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/kak-otlichit-opyata-ot-lozhnyx-opyat.2.jpg)
False mushrooms have no rings, the caps are bright and smooth, without scales.
Now you know how to distinguish honey mushrooms from false honey mushrooms. If you have any doubts about a mushroom, it is better not to cut it at all or try it at home water test. Gradually you will gain mushroom experience, and you will know exactly where edible honey fungus, and where is poisonous.
Also look at the edible honey mushrooms in the photo very carefully, because in field conditions there will be nothing to compare the found instances with:
Honey mushrooms in the photo
Honey mushrooms in the photo
Yellow-red edible honey mushrooms in the photo
The mushroom is edible. Yellow-red varieties of edible honey mushrooms are decorated with velvety caps 5-15 cm in diameter; in young specimens they are hemispherical, later convex, fleshy, covered with red scales in at a young age, completely red, appear later yellow places on the edge of the cap and where the light did not reach due to a fallen leaf or twig. The caps are dry, not slimy. The plates are often yellow or golden yellow. The leg is cylindrical, 6-15 cm long, 1-2 cm thick, yellow-red, velvety.
The description of edible honey mushrooms can be continued by saying that they grow in mixed and coniferous forests on stumps, trunks and roots coniferous trees, on the roots of dry pine trees.
Fruits from July to October.
Poisonous double of honey mushroom yellow-red - sulfur-yellow row (Tricholoba sulphureum) easily distinguished by the color of the fruiting body and the unpleasant acetylene smell of the pulp.
The mushroom is a little bitter. Some experts advise pre-boiling it before cooking.
Seasonal types of honey mushrooms: photos and descriptions
Look seasonal species honey mushrooms in the photo, which shows summer, autumn and winter honey mushrooms:
Summer honey mushrooms
Summer honey mushrooms
Autumn honey mushrooms
Autumn honey mushrooms
These types of honey mushrooms are very common, but only at certain times of the year. This is where their names come from.
Seasonal honey mushrooms, their types and descriptions are presented further on the page; you can see them in the photo:
Winter honey fungus
Winter honey fungus
Winter honey fungus
Winter honey fungus
Winter honey fungus in the photo
The mushroom is edible. Caps 2-8 cm, young ones - bell-shaped or convex, then prostrate, sticky, yellow-ocher or rusty-brown, with frequent white-ocher or white plates below. The legs are thin, velvety, without a ring, at first the color of the cap, not very hard, then they become dark brown or almost black and hard. Main hallmark winter honey fungus - a hard, velvety leg. Splices it fruiting bodies look like fiery spots against the background of snow. The mushroom has adapted to bear fruit during thaws in winter. You can observe under a microscope how, when the temperature rises above zero, the cells of its mycelium that burst during freezing grow together.
It grows on dead and living tree trunks, as well as on the stumps of willow, poplar, birch and linden. Sometimes it can be found on coniferous trees.
Fruits from September to December. Sometimes it grows in spring.
It has no poisonous counterparts.
Soups are made from winter honey fungus, hot salted, and pickled in jars.
Summer honey fungus in the photo
Summer honey fungus in the photo
The mushroom is edible. The caps are 3-8 cm, initially hemispherical, closed, then almost open, smooth from yellow to yellow-brown with a darker edge. The plates are pale clay-yellow, rusty-brown with age, in young mushrooms they are covered with a film of white or yellow color. The leg is hard, dense yellow-brown, 3-8 cm long, 6-12 mm thick with a whitish ring, covered below the ring with loose scales. The spore powder is rusty brown.
It grows on dead tree trunks, on stumps, and sometimes on soil rich in woody debris. Splices contain a large number of mushrooms
The summer honey fungus appears in June, sometimes even in May, and bears fruit until September.
Looks like summer honey fungus poisonous mushroom- edged galerina (Galerina marginata). Its concretions and mushrooms are much smaller, the ring is not obvious, but barely noticeable, the scales on the stalk are white and pressed.
Only the caps are used in preparations and dishes; the legs of old honey mushrooms are thrown away or left in the forest when collected.
Autumn honey fungus in the photo
Autumn honey fungus in the photo
The mushroom is edible. Beautiful, rather fleshy caps 3-10 cm, initially hemispherical, then convex, matte due to small scales, yellow-cream, ocher-brown. At first the plates are yellowish-white, hidden under a blanket. Then the plates become ocher or brown. The legs are 5-10 cm long, 1-2 cm thick, with the remains of a blanket in the form of a white ring under the cap. The flesh in the cap is whitish with a pleasant smell.
In a birch forest, the autumn honey fungus covers a vast territory. The mycelium develops in stumps and weakened trees, uniting with the help of strands up to 3 mm in diameter into a single organism.
They grow in large clusters from August to November.
Big harvest happens once every three years.
Autumn honey fungus can be confused with the inedible red brick honey fungus (Hypholoma sublateritium), which is distinguished by later fruiting on the same stumps and bitterish pulp.
Autumn honey fungus is edible after heat treatment or drying. Poisonous when cold pickling.
Meadow mushrooms in the photo
Meadow mushrooms in the photo
Meadow mushrooms – edible species, used in cooking in boiled and canned form.
Look at these types of honey mushrooms in the photo and in the description, which will allow you to distinguish meadow honey fungus from inedible mushrooms:
Meadow mushrooms
Meadow mushrooms
The caps are 3-5 cm, at first hemispherical, convex, then open with a blunt hump, smooth, light ocher, sometimes light flesh-red. The plates are sparse, adherent in young mushrooms, later free, ocher in wet weather, creamy-whitish in dry weather. The mushroom cap does not age; it droops in dry weather; when it rains, it regains its elasticity and rises on its stem. This causes the edge of the cap to crumble in old mushrooms, and the tips of the plates are visible from above. Leg 3-10 cm high, thin-velvety light ocher, Bottom part ocher. The pulp is whitish and sweetish with a faint sweetish aftertaste of cloves. The smell is pleasant. Spore powder is white.
It grows in the grass in clearings in the forest, on the lawn. Forms “witch circles”.
Honey fungus bears fruit from June to October. In dry weather, the mushroom is not visible in the grass.
The honey fungus has no poisonous counterparts.
Other types of edible honey mushrooms: what they look like, photos
We invite you to look at other types of edible honey mushrooms in the photo, which illustrate the appearance of the bulbous and dark honey mushrooms:
Bulbous honey fungus
It is necessary to know what edible honey mushrooms look like, since most of the presented species have false poisonous counterparts.
Bulbous honey fungus in the photo
The mushroom is edible. Beautiful, rather fleshy caps 3-10 cm. At first hemispherical, then convex, matte due to small scales, yellow-brown, sometimes with a fleshy-red tint. At first the plates are yellowish-white, hidden under a blanket. Then the plates become ocher or brown. The cap-colored legs are 5-10 cm long, 1-2 cm thick, with remnants of a cover in the form of a white ring under the cap, with a bulbous thickening at the bottom. The flesh in the cap is whitish with a pleasant smell.
It grows mainly in birch forests, sometimes in orchards and coniferous forests. It is found on old stumps, on the roots of stumps and trees so that it seems to grow on the ground.
Found from August to October in clumps or single mushrooms.
The bulbous honey fungus can be confused with the inedible red brick honey fungus (Hypholoma sublateritium), which is distinguished by later fruiting on the same stumps and bitterish pulp.
The bulbous honey fungus is edible after heat treatment or drying.
Poisonous when cold salted!
Dark honey fungus in the photo
Dark honey fungus in the photo
The mushroom is edible. Beautiful, rather fleshy caps 3-10 cm, initially hemispherical, then convex, matte due to dark scales, ocher-brown. At first the plates are yellowish-white, hidden under a blanket. Then the plates become ocher or brown. The legs are 5-10 cm long, 1-2 cm thick, with the remains of a cover in the form of a ring with a brown edge under the cap. The flesh in the cap is whitish with a pleasant smell.
IN coniferous forest The dark honey fungus covers a vast territory. A mycelium covering an area of 35 hectares was found in Swiss forests.
They grow in large clusters from August to November. A large harvest occurs once every three years.
Dark honey fungus can be confused with the inedible red brick honey fungus (Hypholoma sublateritium), which is distinguished by later fruiting on the same stumps and bitterish pulp.
Dark honey fungus is edible after heat treatment or drying.
Poisonous when cold salted!