White mushrooms growing underground. What mushrooms grow underground
Truffle is an edible member of the Truffle family.
Appearance
The fruiting bodies of truffle mushrooms are round or tuberous in shape and range in size from 2.5 to 10 centimeters. Their surface is dark in color - from bluish-black to brown-black. It often contains pyramidal warts, but there are also types with a smooth surface.
The pulp of a young truffle is dense, while that of a mature one is loose. At first it is whitish, but as it ages it becomes brownish-yellow. When cut, the light veins inside the pulp give it a marbled color. The taste of truffle pulp is sweetish, reminiscent of a nut. The aroma of the mushroom is pleasant, similar to the smell of algae.
Kinds
The most common types of truffle are:
Summer
It is found in central Europe, including Russia (its second name is “black Russian”). It is valued less than other types of this mushroom. The ripening season for this truffle is summer and the first month of autumn.
Ginger
Grows in Europe and North America. It can also be found in Siberia.
White
This truffle can be found in the northern regions of Italy and neighboring regions of France. It is also called Italian or Piedmontese. The surface of such truffles is brownish or light ocher in color. The inside of the mushroom is dense, whitish or yellow-gray, its marbled pattern is cream or white. This type of truffle smells similar to cheese with garlic. It is usually collected in October.
Black
It is considered the most valuable among mushrooms of this species. It grows most often in France. The second name of this mushroom is associated with the area of growth - Perigord. It is distinguished by a reddish-brown-black surface color, dark pulp, characteristic odor and pleasant taste. This truffle grows in winter and is harvested in January-March.
Winter
This mushroom grows in Switzerland and France. It is also found in Ukraine. Its main difference is the ripening period (November-March).
Where does it grow
Truffle is an underground mushroom. It usually grows at shallow depths, and old truffles may appear on the surface. You can find such a mushroom in forests - both deciduous and mixed (truffles appear extremely rarely among coniferous trees). It loves calcareous soils and often grows under the roots of birches, oaks, hornbeams, and beeches.
This type of mushroom grows in Central Europe. In Russia, it can be found in the Caucasus on the Black Sea coast. Truffle searches are carried out by specially trained dogs and pigs. Over the places where truffles grow, in the evening (at sunset) you can see swarms of yellowish flies.
How to choose and where to buy
Since the mushroom has a short shelf life (2-4 days after picking), it is therefore eaten fresh only during the picking season. These mushrooms are not sold in regular supermarkets. They can be purchased in specialized departments and directly from suppliers. Most often, truffles are purchased in small quantities for restaurants. For long-term storage, truffles can be preserved and frozen. Mushrooms are transported in special containers, sometimes immersed in olive oil or covered with rice.
Why are truffles so expensive?
The cost of this type of mushroom is very high. A kilogram of this delicacy costs from 400 euros. The high cost of truffles is due to the difficulties of growing, the seasonality of obtaining this mushroom, as well as the high taste and aromatic qualities of the product.
The value of truffles is primarily affected by the size of the specimens. The larger the mushroom, the higher its cost. The most expensive are the large mushrooms (like apples), but less than 1% of all collected mushrooms will grow such truffles. About 10% of the harvest is nut-sized - these truffles are classified as Extra grade. About 30% of mushrooms the size of a grape are collected. The remaining mushrooms are even smaller, so they are cheaper and are mainly used for making sauces.
Characteristics
- The mushroom is considered a gourmet food.
- It has a mushroom taste, mixed with the taste of nuts or seeds. When truffles are placed in water, they have a taste similar to soy sauce.
- Truffle has a strong characteristic odor.
Nutritional value and calorie content
100 g of truffles contains:
Chemical composition
By consuming truffles, a person receives with them:
- proteins;
- vitamins C, PP, B1 and B2;
- carbohydrates represented by mono- and disaccharides;
- minerals;
- pheromones;
- alimentary fiber;
- antioxidants.
Beneficial features
- The presence of pheromones in truffles improves a person’s emotional state.
- This type of mushroom contains many antioxidants.
- Truffle juice can treat eye diseases.
- A positive effect of consuming truffles for gout patients has been noted.
Harm
- Individual intolerance (extremely rare).
- Digestive problems.
Application
In cooking
- A serving of truffle for one dish is rarely more than 5-8 grams. The mushroom is weighed in a restaurant on very precise scales.
- Often truffle acts as an addition to the main dish. The mushroom is cut on a special grater.
- This mushroom goes well with any food, especially with dishes that do not have a particularly pronounced taste.
- In French cooking, truffles are most often combined with poultry, lobsters, eggs, and fruits.
- The mushroom can be served in its pure form, and to highlight the taste, it is served with creamy or wine sauce.
- Fillings for pies and truffle sauces are made from small truffles.
- Slices of mushroom are often used to decorate black caviar, snails and other exotic dishes.
Truffles go well with cereals
Truffles are also used in soups
Many people will like pasta with truffles
You can learn even more about truffle mushrooms from the following video of the Galileo program.
In cosmetology
Cosmetologists in Italy include truffle extract in masks and skin creams. They claim that adding this mushroom to cosmetics helps tighten the skin, remove age spots, and cope with fine wrinkles.
Growing
The cultivation of the truffle mushroom in France began in 1808, when the first truffle oak trees were planted. Later, truffle groves were created, producing up to a thousand tons of mushrooms per year. The decline of the country's agricultural industry also affected truffle cultivation. Every year, fewer and fewer truffle mushrooms are harvested from French truffle mushroom plantations.
In addition to France, such mushrooms are grown in China (now this country is the leader in truffle cultivation), Great Britain, the United States, Sweden and Spain, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. Truffle grown in China has less aroma, but is attractive due to its low price and great similarity in appearance and taste to its French counterpart. To improve the quality of mushrooms supplied from China, they are mixed with truffles grown in France.
- It is believed that truffle contains a substance with psychotropic effects. It's called anandamide.
- Due to the unknown origin of the mushroom, which was not known for a long time, many legends have appeared around the truffle. The ancient Romans considered this mushroom to be healing and enhance potency. In the Middle Ages, truffles were given mystical powers. During the Renaissance, this mushroom was considered an aphrodisiac.
- The use of truffles in cooking began in the 15th century by Italian chefs.
- Truffles were grown in the Moscow province, and bears whose teeth had been pulled out were involved in their collection.
- In the village of Lorgues en Provence there is a restaurant whose menu features a large number of dishes with truffles.
Truffle ( Tuber) is the most expensive mushroom in the world, a rare and tasty delicacy with unique taste and a strong specific aroma. The mushroom got its name due to the similarity of its fruiting body with potato tubers or cones (the Latin phrase terrae tuber corresponds to the concept of “earth cones”). The truffle mushroom belongs to the ascomycetes department, subdivision Pezizomycotina, class Peciaceae, order Peciaceae, family Truffleaceae, genus truffle.
Mushroom truffle
Truffle mushroom: description and characteristics. What does a truffle look like?
In most cases, the truffle mushroom is slightly larger in size than a nut, but some specimens can be larger than a large potato tuber and weigh more than 1 kilogram. The truffle itself looks like. The outer layer (peridium) covering the mushroom can have a smooth surface or is cut with numerous cracks, and is also covered with characteristic multifaceted warts.
The cross section of the mushroom has a clearly defined marble texture. It is formed by alternating light “internal veins” and “external veins” of a darker shade, on which spore bags of various shapes are located. The color of the truffle pulp depends on the species: it can be white, black, chocolate, gray.
Truffle pulp
Types of truffles
Types of truffles, names and photos
The truffle genus includes more than a hundred species of mushrooms, which are classified both according to their biological and geographical group and in terms of gastronomic value (black, white, red).
The most famous truffles are:
- Black summer truffle (Russian truffle) ( Tuber aestivum)
Reaches 10 cm in diameter and weighs 400 grams. Age-related changes in truffle pulp are expressed in a change in color from whitish tones to yellow-brown and gray-brown shades. Its consistency also changes from dense in young mushrooms to loose in old ones. Russian truffle has a sweet, nutty flavor and a faint seaweed smell.
This type of truffle grows in Transcaucasia and Crimea, in the European part of Russia and in Europe. Found under trees such as hazel. Fruits from June to early October.
Black summer truffle (Russian truffle)
- Tuber mesentericum)
The mushroom is round in shape and weighs up to 320 g, not exceeding 8 cm in size. The pulp of a mature truffle has the color of milk chocolate, riddled with white veins. The aroma of the truffle has a pronounced hint of cocoa; the mushroom itself has a bitter aftertaste.
- Black winter truffle ( Tuber brumale)
The shape of the fruiting bodies can be either irregularly spherical or almost spherical. The size of the truffle varies from 8 to 15-20 cm, and the weight can reach 1.5 kg. The red-purple surface of the mushroom is covered with polygonal warts. With age, the color of the peridium becomes black, and the white flesh turns gray-violet. Winter truffle has a pleasant, pronounced musky aroma.
This type of truffle grows from November to January-February in moist soils under hazel or linden. It can be found in France, Italy, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Black winter truffle
- Black Périgord (French) truffle ( Tuber melanosporum)
The fruits are irregular or slightly rounded, reaching 9 cm in cross section. The surface of the fungus, covered with four or hexagonal warts, changes its color with age from red-brown to coal-black. The truffle's light flesh, sometimes tinged with pink, turns dark brown or black-violet as it ages.
Fruits from December to the end of March. It is cultivated in Europe and Crimea, Australia, New Zealand, China, and South Africa. Among black truffles, this type is considered the most valuable, it is even called “black diamond”. It has a strong aroma and pleasant taste. The name of the mushroom comes from the name of the Périgord region in France.
- Tuber himalayensis)
A mushroom with small fruiting bodies and weighing up to 50 g. Due to its small size, this truffle is quite difficult to find.
- Tuber magnatum)
The fruit bodies have an irregular tuberous shape and reach up to 12 cm in diameter. Most truffles weigh no more than 300 g, but rare specimens can weigh up to 1 kilogram. The peridium has a yellowish-red or brownish color. The flesh is white or creamy, sometimes with a slight red tint.
The Piedmontese truffle is the most valuable among white truffles and is considered the most expensive mushroom in the world. Italian truffle has a pleasant taste and an aroma reminiscent of cheese and garlic. The mushroom grows in northern Italy.
- White Oregon (American) truffle ( Tuber oregonense)
The mushroom reaches 5-7 cm in diameter and weighs up to 250 g. It grows on the west coast of the USA. Usually found in the top layer of soil, which consists of fallen needles. For this reason, the truffle aroma has floral and herbal notes.
- Red truffle ( Tuber rufum)
It has a grassy-coconut aroma with a wine aftertaste. The size of the mushrooms does not exceed 4 cm, and the weight is 80 g. The pulp is dense. It grows mainly in Europe in deciduous and coniferous forests. Fruiting time is from September to January.
Truffle red
- Tuber nitidum)
This truffle has a pronounced wine-pear-coconut aroma. The fruiting bodies reach 3 cm in diameter and weigh up to 45 g. It grows in deciduous and coniferous forests. Fruiting time is from May to August (sometimes, under favorable conditions, it bears fruit from April to September).
- Tuber uncinatum)
Another variety of French black truffle. It grows mainly in the northeastern regions of France, is found in Italy, and very rarely in Great Britain. The mushroom has a very expressive hazelnut aroma with a slight “chocolate” note; it is highly valued by gourmets for its excellent gastronomic features and “affordable” price compared to other types of truffles: the price of a truffle is around 600 euros per 1 kilogram.
This type of truffle ripens in June-October, depending on climatic conditions. The pulp of the mushroom is quite dense, and its consistency does not change throughout the entire ripening period; it has a gray-brown color with frequent inclusions of light “marble” veins.
- Tuber sinensis, Tuber indicum)
Despite its name, the first mushroom of this species was discovered not in China, but in the Himalayan forests, and only a century later the Asian truffle was found in China. In terms of taste and intensity of aroma, this mushroom is significantly inferior to its brother, the black French truffle, however, it is quite popular among connoisseurs of this delicacy. The flesh of the mushroom is dark brown, sometimes black, with multiple veins of a grayish-white hue.
The Chinese truffle grows not only on Chinese territory: it is found in India, in the forests of Korea, and in the fall of 2015, one of the residents of the Russian city of Ussuriysk found a truffle right on his personal plot, in the garden under a young oak tree.
Where and how do truffles grow?
Truffle mushrooms grow underground in small groups, in which there are from 3 to 7 fruiting bodies that have a cartilaginous or fleshy consistency.
The distribution area of truffles is very extensive: this delicacy is collected in deciduous and coniferous forests of Europe and Asia, North Africa and the United States of America.
For example, the mycelium of the Piedmontese truffle, which grows in northern Italy, forms a symbiosis with the roots of poplar, elm and linden, and the fruiting bodies of the black Périgord truffle can be found in Spain, Switzerland and the south of France in groves consisting of oak, hornbeam or beech trees .
The black summer truffle prefers deciduous or mixed forests and calcareous soils of Central Europe, Scandinavian countries, the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, Ukraine, as well as certain regions of Central Asia.
Winter truffle grows not only in the groves of Switzerland and France, but also in the mountain forests of Crimea. The fruiting bodies of the white Moroccan truffle can be found in forests located on the Mediterranean and North African coasts. This truffle mushroom grows near the roots of oak and pine trees.
How do truffles grow?
Today we will continue the previously started story about the most.
Mushrooms are a special type of plant organisms that combine some characteristics of both plants and animals. Mushrooms lack chlorophyll, are not able to independently absorb carbon dioxide from the air and therefore feed on ready-made organic compounds, writes PRODMAG.
The biological and ecological diversity of mushrooms is very large. This is one of the largest and most diverse groups of living organisms, which has become an integral part of all aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. According to modern estimates, there are from 100 to 250 thousand, and according to some estimates, up to 1.5 million species of mushrooms on Earth.
The world of forest mushrooms is extremely rich and diverse. There is a great variety of all kinds of shapes and colors. Among the forest mushrooms there are those that look like outlandish flowers, bushes, bowls and even a piece of dark red liver. Some have an unusually bizarre shape.
(Aseroe rubra)- A fairly common mushroom in Australia. It has an unpleasant odor, somewhat reminiscent of rotten meat. This smell of the mushroom attracts flies, which spread the spores of this type of mushroom.
(Calocera viscosa)- judging by the appearance of this mushroom, you might think that its habitat is the seabed. The fruit body is elongated, vertical, egg-colored with shades of ocher, sometimes slightly reddened. Kalocera adhesive reaches 5–6 cm in length and up to 1 cm in diameter. The fruiting bodies of the colony readily grow together at the base and continue to grow in a small “bush.” The fungus grows in large colonies, less often singly, on the remains of rotten wood.
From the point of view of edibility, there are different opinions about Kalocera adhesive; some sources consider it edible, but are silent about its possible processing; others do not mention it at all in the lists of edible mushrooms. However, Kalocera also did not get poisonous. It is believed that due to its small size and rarity, the mushroom never received its place in the culinary ranks, and is considered inedible.
Pale brown Clavaria (Clavaria zollingeri)- a widespread type of mushroom. It has a tube-shaped purple or pinkish-lilac body that grows up to 10 cm tall and 7 cm wide. Scientists have determined that there are about 1,200 species of clavaria, which vary in shades ranging from white to bright orange and purple. These mushrooms grow in many places, mostly in tropical areas, and are considered inedible.
Clavaria grows singly or in groups, mainly in coniferous forests with oak, from late June to September, in moss, sometimes in open places. Fruiting bodies are formed in August-October. Clavaria is known in Australia, New Zealand, North America, South America, Europe and Asia. It is included in the list of rare species in Denmark, in the Red Book of the Chelyabinsk Region.
Azure mushroom (Entoloma hochstetteri)- lives in the forests of New Zealand and India. These blue mushrooms can be poisonous, but their toxicity is poorly understood. It gets its distinctive blue color from the azuline pigment found in its fruiting body, which is also found in some marine invertebrates.
Four-lobed starwort (Geastrum quadrifidum)- refers to puffball mushrooms that can be found in different locations and elevations around the world. This unusual mushroom changes its appearance after it emerges from the ground. Its “rays” bend downwards, the round fruiting body rises and releases spores into the air. It grows mostly on sandy soil in deciduous, mixed and coniferous-pine, spruce, pine-spruce and spruce-deciduous forests (among fallen pine needles). It is considered inedible due to its bitter taste.
In some Indian tribes, this mushroom is known for its medicinal properties, and according to legend, it predicts upcoming celestial events.
Elastic paddle () - grows in humid, sparse, mostly deciduous forests, from July to the end of September, singly or in groups. The cap is two-lobed, saddle-shaped, light yellowish or grayish-brown, whitish or pink below, 1.5-4 cm in width and height. The stalk is up to 7 cm long, 0.2-0.4 cm thick, cylindrical, widened downward, with small and shallow longitudinal grooves, whitish or brownish, smooth.
Elastic lobe is conditionally edible. Used dried. When boiled, it can be used only after boiling and removing the decoction.
() — This mushroom, which looks like a noodle or pompom, is known by many names: lion's mane mushroom, bearded tooth mushroom, hedgehog mushroom, etc. At first glance, it does not evoke any associations with a mushroom. This edible mushroom grows on both living and dead trees, and when cooked resembles seafood in color and texture.
Not only does it taste good, but it is also used in traditional Chinese medicine for its antioxidant properties and lowering blood glucose levels.
(Hydnellum peckii) is a rather original mushroom that can be found on sandy soils in coniferous forests. The surface of young fruiting bodies is velvety, white, with small tubercles, becoming brown with age. Drops of blood-red liquid appear on the upper surface of young specimens. It grows on the ground in autumn in coniferous (spruce and pine) forests. Inedible due to strong bitter taste.
It can be called by different names, but whatever the name, it will definitely be associated with blood or juice. It can be found in North America and is most common in the Pacific Northwest and grows primarily in coniferous forests.
Blue milky (Lactarius indigo) — A fairly common type of mushroom, it grows in eastern North America, East Asia and Central America. It grows on the ground in both deciduous and coniferous forests. The mushroom cap has a diameter of 5 to 15 cm, a denim-blue color, and a shape that changes over time from convex to funnel-shaped. Young mushrooms have a sticky surface layer. The leg, which has a height of 2 to 6 cm and a thickness of 1 to 2.5 cm, is cylindrical in shape, thick, denim blue in color, and may have a silver-gray tint.
There is a milky juice of denim blue color, changing to green, acrid in nature. The mushroom is edible and sold in rural markets in Mexico, Guatemala and China.
(), whose Latin name comes from the Roman phallic deity Mutinus Mutunus, meaning "like a dog". Interestingly, the dark tip of the mitinus attracts insects and has an odor reminiscent of cat excrement.
Mainly growing in small groups on wood dust or in leaf piles, it can be found in summer and autumn in Europe and eastern North America. This type of mushroom is considered inedible.
Bird's nest (Nidulariaceae) — a fungus belonging to the group of molds. The mushroom owes its name to its unusual appearance, reminiscent of a bird's nest with tiny eggs. This form contributes to the favorable spread of spores: under the pressure of rainwater entering the nest, the fungus sprays them out within a radius of a meter from itself, which allows it to occupy more and more new territories for reproduction.
The Bird's Nest grows mainly in New Zealand on rotting wood, small branches of tree ferns, and sometimes on animal excrement.
Panellus astringentus () — the cap is 2-4 cm in diameter, kidney-shaped, lateral, light brown, finely scaly or finely fluffy, with a hairy, slightly curved thin edge. The plates are narrow, frequent, the same color as the cap or darker. The pulp is thin, leathery, brownish. The stalk is 0.5-2 cm high, 0.2-0.6 cm wide, eccentric, thickened towards the top, solid, the same color as the cap, pubescent, then smooth.
It grows in large groups, merging with the bases of the legs, on fallen trees and stumps. From April to November. European part of Russia, Siberia, Primorsky Territory. Inedible.
(Rhodotus palmatus) — this mushroom is the only representative of the genus in the family Physalacriaceae. It is found throughout the northern hemisphere: in eastern North America, northern Africa, Europe and Asia. In Europe it is included in many lists of endangered species. Grows on stumps and decaying wood.
The fruiting body of mature mushrooms is a characteristic pink color with a mesh pattern on a dense cap. Size, shape and color vary depending on lighting.
Orange tremella (Tremella mesenterica) — consists of smooth, shiny and sinuous lobes. The lobes are watery and shapeless in appearance, slightly reminiscent of intestines. The fruiting body is approximately 1-4 cm in height. The color of the fruiting body varies from almost white to bright yellow or orange. Due to the large number of spores located on the surface, the mushroom appears whitish. The pulp is gelatinous, but strong and odorless.
Like all Tremellas, Tremella mesenterica tends to dry out, and after rain, it becomes the same again. Found from August to late autumn. Often the fungus persists in winter, forming fruiting bodies with the onset of spring. Grows on dead branches of deciduous trees. If conditions are favorable, it bears fruit very abundantly. It grows on both plains and mountains. In places with a mild climate, it can bear fruit throughout the mushroom period.
The mushroom is edible, although tasteless, and even has some value, but not in our country. Our mushroom pickers have no idea how to collect this mushroom, how to carry it home and how to cook it so that it does not dissolve.
Truffle is a very capricious mushroom in relation to environmental conditions; its formation requires warm and humid weather with heavy rainfall. Most often found in warm regions of the temperate zone - in Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, in the southern regions of Germany, as well as in the central zone of the European part of Russia. Outside of Europe, they can be found in California and North Africa.
These mushrooms grow in the vicinity of certain higher plants. Black truffles are found in forests with plus-bearing trees - hazel, oak, hornbeam and beech. The special type of soil characteristic of the growth of such trees creates favorable conditions for these fungi. White truffle grows in deciduous foxes with, birch, poplar, rowan, willow and hawthorn, and can sometimes be found next to, juniper or pine.
Reproduction is a complex and lengthy process that depends on the behavior of wild animals, they eat it and spread the spores. Animals are attracted to the rich, specific aroma characteristic of this mushroom.
Truffle picking
When ripe, the truffle lifts the soil slightly; for pickers, this is a sign of the presence of mushrooms. The nests grow and expand every year; if the mycelium is not disturbed, then in these places you can expect a harvest next year.
The difficulties that accompany the collection of truffles make these mushrooms a very expensive and valuable product. The season begins at the end of September and continues until the end of March; winter truffles can only be harvested from November to December. The process is complicated by the fact that mushrooms often grow one at a time, while large specimens are very rare, and the bulk are made up of small ones. However, the size of the truffle does not affect its taste.
The best time for collection is considered to be night; it is at this time that it is easiest to smell the aroma of the mushroom. Pigs and specially trained dogs can be faithful assistants in this process; they are able to detect the smell of truffle. Due to the deteriorating environmental situation, yields are decreasing every year, and growing truffles in artificial conditions is a troublesome and lengthy process that does not always bring the desired results. In recent years, truffles have begun to be cultivated in China, but in terms of taste they are much inferior to real mushrooms growing in the forest.
False truffles
False truffles are those underground or near-surface mushrooms of more or less spherical shape, which collectors unknowingly confuse with truffles, and sometimes deliberately pass them off as these valuable mushrooms to people unfamiliar with real truffles. There are a great variety of underground mushrooms, including on the territory of Russia, all of them have been little studied precisely because of their underground nature. Among them there are not only tasteless distant relatives of truffles, but also puffballs, champignons, trumpet mushrooms, and even underground round lacticaria and russula that have gone underground as a result of evolution. All these mushrooms have nothing to do with real truffles.
Among other relatives of truffles there are some very interesting mushrooms:
This is the so-called deer truffle. It is considered an aphrodisiac. In Europe, it is used as a sexual stimulant for breeding bulls.
Like truffles, the mushroom emits a pungent, specific odor by which forest inhabitants find it (the mushroom needs this to spread spores). It is known that in the 19th century this mushroom was used by restaurateurs as a fake truffle.
This funny fungus, hollow inside, is Genabea cerebriformis.
It grows in forests under a layer of green moss. The cavity inside is populated by fungal symbionts - small forest ants. They lay eggs in these truffles and hatch larvae, providing the genabia with protection from slugs and insect pests. In addition, the acid secreted by ants scares off squirrels and other mushroom eaters.
Among raincoats there are also many underground species. It is these that ordinary mushroom pickers, having accidentally dug something round out of the ground, consider truffles and are completely unreasonably happy about such a find.
Some trumpet mushrooms, relatives of the porcini mushroom, also “went” underground for better protection of spores. In our country, the most common are rootworms (genus Rhizopogon), but there are also other, rarer species. All of them are significantly softer to the touch than truffles and, as a rule, change color when pressed and cut.
But the most unusual phenomenon is underground agaric mushrooms. During the process of evolution, their stem was retracted under the cap, and the edges of the cap closed at the bottom, protecting the plates with spores. Very often, when you cut such a mushroom, you can see an internal vertical column on the cut - the remains of the stem “absorbed” by the cap.
Here is an example of the underground russula (Macowanites candidus) living in our forests.
The mushroom is still in the process of evolution, and on some fruiting bodies you can see a small, but quite pronounced stalk.
And this is Stephen's milkweed (Lactarius stephensii), a relative of milk mushrooms and saffron milk caps.
The stalk is no longer visible, but at the base of the mushroom there is a characteristic tubercle, which is its vestigial remnant and is always directed downward.
And this is the underground varnish (Hydnangium carneum), a mushroom from the row family.
Here is the complete evolutionary finish line, there is not even a hint of a leg. However, look at the cut: the dark red-brown uneven vein in the middle is a memory of the leg. And the winding pattern, so similar to a truffle, is modified twisted plates of a mushroom.