Forest Mushrooms - Chanterelles And Mushrooms

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

A person gets used to good things quickly. Spoiled by last year's forest wonders, mushroom pickers with huge baskets rush to the coveted places, to the dense thicket and sunny meadows. And in the evening they just shrug their shoulders in disappointment - there are no mushrooms. At ten o'clock in the evening, standing on a railway platform under the slanting streams of rain, I became an involuntary witness of a quite typical dialogue - the unfortunate prophet in camouflage with an important air was broadcasting about the unfavorable environmental situation, emissions at the nuclear power plant, and the lack of negative ions in rainwater. In his fiery speech, it seems, everything sounded - everything except the truth …

Mushroom yield

Annual fluctuations in the yield of mushrooms are quite natural. This applies not only to the number of fruiting bodies (mushrooms, as we remember, do not have fruits in the traditional sense of this word), but also to the species composition. There are mushrooms that appear only once every few years! I have noticed such a cyclical nature in Phaeolepiota aurea, a beautiful large mushroom. But this also applies to more familiar mushrooms. We do not know all the factors affecting the activity of the mycelium; in the words of the classic, "science is not yet in the know here." Probably, it's not just the weather conditions - temperature, humidity, illumination; the mechanism is much more complex. Mushrooms don't just follow weather changes - they also have an additional "schedule". The people noticed this feature long ago.

The cep, for example, appears especially abundantly once every five years, the honey mushroom pleases mushroom pickers once every three years, the chanterelle, according to Yu. G. Semenov, bears fruit according to a more complex pattern - five fruitful years are followed by five low-yielding ones. There are mushrooms that appear every four, six, seven years!

Of course, if a drought, severe cold snap or unprecedented heat falls on a fruitful year according to the "internal schedule", our baskets will remain empty. In addition to all that has been said, there is a simpler explanation that literally lies on the surface. To understand the essence, it is enough to remember the weather of the last three years.

The years 2001 and 2002 were distinguished by high temperatures in June and July, low precipitation, cool autumn, and sharply coming winter. This is also important - the mycelium should retire well-developed, prepared. In other words, for two years, fruiting bodies simply could not appear in significant numbers.

But the summer of 2003 was the complete opposite! The weather was 100% mushroom, and the year was just a reward for those who love quiet hunting. Literally everything that could have crawled out to the surface, no one expected such an abundance of mushrooms, both in quantity and in species composition. We remember that the familiar "mushroom" with a cap and a leg is only one of the organs of a complex organism, appearing literally for a few days, and even not every year. The mushrooms themselves live in the forest floor in the form of the finest white filaments called mycelium. He does not die for the winter as it seems; mushroom is a perennial organism. The mycelium grows, develops, consumes nutrients from the soil, enters into a complex interaction with tree roots. And when the weather permits, in all its glory it shows the world our usual "mushrooms" - fruit bodies,serving for the production of millions of spores through which fungi multiply. But the powers of mycelium are not limitless! After a fantastic yield last year, mycelium just needs to rest and gain strength. These words fully confirm our empty baskets.

Chanterelles

However, an attentive mushroom picker will never be disappointed. This year pleases us with chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) - well-known to everyone, bright orange mushrooms with a characteristic fruity smell. The mushroom is popular even in European countries, where people are generally skeptical of everything that grows wild. In addition to its excellent taste, scientists have noticed a pronounced anticancer activity behind the chanterelle. An interesting fact is that it is almost impossible to find a wormy chanterelle - insect larvae do not like a fragrant mushroom, leaving us cheerful orange families intact.

Honey mushrooms

This year there are also a lot of summer mushrooms (Kuehneromyces mutabilis). Thin-legged aromatic mushrooms grow in large families on dead wood. Summer honey agaric is confidently identified by a two-color hat, the edges of which are, as it were, saturated with water, by a characteristic colored leg and a filmy ringlet. The width of the "wet" part of the cap depends on the air humidity. Probably, there should be now the usual autumn mushrooms(Armillariella mellea). Despite the similarity of names, this is a completely different mushroom. It appears annually, even in the most lean year, you can find a few autumn mushrooms. These mushrooms appear in distinct layers. In just a few days, as if obeying some inaudible command, everything wooden is covered with pretty columns of young honey agarics. It is at a young age that the mushroom is most delicious; true gourmets prefer marinated young mushrooms with an unopened cap.

It is better not to collect old mushrooms at all - the mushroom becomes tough, acquires an unpleasant smell. In strong, but adult mushrooms, only caps are collected - they are softer and tastier than legs. There is nothing to pity them - if the layer has already gone, then there will be enough mushrooms for everyone. Gathering honey agaric is not like a mushroom hunt, and it is reminiscent of harvesting - up to a hundred or more fruit bodies can grow on one tree! And nearby there are trees, also abundantly covered with honey agarics. A nice-looking mushroom is not at all as harmless as it seems at first glance - it is the most dangerous pest. The fact is that in addition to dead trees, honey agaric can settle on a tree alive, but weakened, leading it to death in several years, and happily living out already on a dead one. Having completely consumed the nutrients of the wood, the honey agaric chooses the next victim …

The breeding method is also interesting. In addition to disputes, the fungus also has a very original mechanism - the so-called rhizomorphs, from the Latin word "rhizo", root. The mycelium of the honeydew hardens, forming thick, several millimeters, strong black cords. The length of the cords can be many meters. Rhizomorphs climb the tree trunk, penetrate under the bark. Sometimes in the fall you can see honey agaric families at a height of several meters above the ground!

In the nineties of the last century, experts of the US Federal Forest Service, looking at satellite photographs of their land, drew attention to an area with many weakened and dead trees. Suspicion fell on an old acquaintance - a mushroom, only the area of his possessions was amazing. A DNA test of the mycelium taken from a hundred different parts of the forest revealed that this is the same organism. The research carried out revealed sensational details - before us is the largest organism on planet Earth. The complex shape of the spot has an area of 1650 football fields. The age of the fungus, which turned out to be one of the varieties of the honey agaric (Armillaria ostoyae), is determined at 2400 years …

Many fungi have a close relationship with trees. This applies to both mycorrhizal fungi and parasites. This feature is reflected in the names themselves - we are looking for birch trees under the birch, for aspen we go to the aspen trees. The honey mushroom is surprisingly unpretentious. More than 200 species of plants can become its victims, among which, by the way, not only trees. M. N. Sergeeva, from her own experience, gives an example when honey mushrooms settled on garden peonies! There have been cases of infection of lilac bushes, barberry and even potatoes with autumn honey.

Some excuse for honey agarics will be that they settle primarily on weak, diseased trees, acting as a kind of forest orderlies. In addition, human economic activity, an unreasonable approach to nature management, greed and the desire for momentary benefits inflict incomparably greater harm on the planet's forests than all mushrooms put together. And yet - the families of young honey agarics are simply beautiful - looking at such "ikebana", you can forgive a lot of the parasite. Which of the mushroom pickers does not have a joyful heart beat at the sight of a hemp covered with hundreds of mushrooms! Apparently, no one can predict the exact date of the beginning of the honey agaric layer. Last year, they appeared on September 1-2, covering all wood overnight. What will happen in this - time will tell.

Dmitry Pesochinsky

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