Many lovers of 'quiet hunting' agree that oyster mushrooms growing in the forest are more fragrant and tasty than their 'counterparts' grown at home. In the forest, oyster mushrooms grow on fallen, dying or diseased tree trunks, rotten or rotten stumps. However, going to the forest for a 'mushroom', you need to know not only where these fruiting bodies grow, but also how to distinguish edible oyster mushrooms from false ones. Otherwise, due to inexperience, you can pick up inedible mushrooms and harm your health.
Description of edible oyster mushrooms
Before you understand how to distinguish oyster mushrooms from their edible counterparts, there is one important detail to remember. The fact is that there are no poisonous representatives of this species on our territory, unless, of course, you collect them in Chernobyl or near Fukushima. The poisonous twin of oyster mushrooms grows only in Australia.
And although false oyster mushrooms grow on the territory of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, they are not poisonous. They are classified as conditionally edible or inedible mushrooms. But they are almost impossible to confuse with species that are freely eaten.
Today the most common representative of edible oyster mushrooms is oyster mushroom or oyster. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with its description in more detail, because knowing the characteristics of this mushroom, you can easily distinguish it from false species.
Latin name: Pleurotus ostreatus.
Family: Oyster mushrooms.
Doubles: No. Similarities with the Australian poisonous mushroom Omphalotus nidiformis (Berk.) Are mentioned.
Hat: Fleshy, round, and oyster-like in appearance. The upper part is smooth and glossy, rarely wavy. Has a gray color, brown, purple, white and yellow shades are allowed. The size of the cap ranges from 3 to 25 cm in diameter.
Stem: Short, inconspicuous, widened from the side of the cap. Smooth, creamy or white, towards the base it becomes fuzzy and stiff.
Pulp: Light, firm, juicy and soft. In adulthood, the pulp becomes significantly stiffer, the appearance of tight fibers is observed.
Application: They are very popular in cooking. Perfectly amenable to pickling, roasting, stewing, canning, drying, freezing, salting and fermenting. In medicine, oyster mushrooms are used to make drugs used in the treatment of cancerous tumors, as well as during the period of radiation and chemotherapy.
Edible: Edible mushroom, category IV.
Distribution: Deciduous, less often – coniferous forests. Grows in all territories of the former Soviet Union.
In addition, other forest edible oyster mushrooms can be found less often: horn-shaped, steppe, pulmonary and royal.
Are there false oyster mushrooms and photos, how they look
And what about false oyster mushrooms – what do they look like? It should be noted that there are not many false oyster mushrooms growing on our territory. It is not difficult to determine their appearance: they have much brighter shades than edible representatives.
As you can see, among the forest false oyster mushrooms, two of the most common species found in Russia can be distinguished: orange oyster mushrooms and wolf sawnwood. These fruiting bodies are not poisonous, but they cannot be eaten due to their excessive bitterness. So, orange oyster mushroom fully justifies its name, because it has a bright and juicy color. The leg of this mushroom is almost completely absent, and the cap itself clings to the bark of the tree. Apart from being orange in color, this type of fruit body also has a strange odor. At a young age, they smell of melon, and mature individuals smell like rotten cabbage.
Orange oyster mushroom has a dense fluffy skin and bitter pulp. It grows mainly in deciduous forests in a beautiful fan-shaped family. Today, spores of this type of mushroom are sold in specialized flower shops. Many people use them to decorate the landscapes of their yards, planting trees on stumps and trunks. The photo below will help to understand whether there are false oyster mushrooms:
Wolfshaw or felt-leaved sawnwood also belongs to the category of inedible mushrooms. Inhabits dead wood of deciduous and coniferous trees from June to November. The size of the cap is 3 to 8 cm in diameter. The cap is matte, tongue-shaped, laterally adhered, cream or brown. At a later age, it acquires 'rusty' spots. The leg is brownish, almost invisible, more often completely absent. The pulp is dense, white; when broken, it has a sharp mushroom odor and a bitter taste. Photos of false oyster mushroom can be viewed below.
