Polish mushroom (Imleria badia)
Systematics:
- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae
- Order: Boletales
- Family: Boletaceae
- Genus: Imleria
- Species: Imleria badia (Polish mushroom)
- Other names for the mushroom:
- Mossy chestnut
- Brown mushroom
- Pan mushroom
- Xerocomus badius
Synonyms:
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Mossy chestnut
-
Brown mushroom
-
Pan mushroom
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Xerocomus badius
-
Boletus badius
Habitat and growth time: The Polish mushroom grows on acidic soils in mixed (often under oak, chestnut and beech) and in coniferous forests – under mature trees, on litter, on sandy soils and in moss, at the base of trees, on acidic soils in lowlands and mountains, singly or in small groups, not infrequently or quite often, annually. From July to November (Western Europe), from June to November (Germany), from July to November (Czech Republic), in June – November (former USSR), from July to October (Ukraine), in August – October (Belarus), in September (Far East), from early July to late October, with massive growth from late August to mid-September (Moscow region).
Distributed in the northern temperate zone, including North America, but more massively in Europe, incl. in Poland, Belarus, Western Ukraine, the Baltic States, the European part of Russia (including the Leningrad region), in the Caucasus, including the North, in Western Siberia (including the Tyumen region and Altai Territory), Eastern Siberia, in the Far East (including the island of Kunashir), in Central Asia (in the vicinity of Alma-Ata), in Azerbaijan, Mongolia and even in Australia (southern temperate zone). In the east of Russia, it is much less common than in the west. On the Karelian Isthmus, according to our observations, it grows from the fifth five-day period of July to the end of October and in the third five-day period of November (in a long, warm autumn) with massive growth at the turn of August and September and in the third five-day period of September. If earlier the mushroom grew exclusively in deciduous (even in alder) and mixed (with spruce) forests, in recent years its finds in the sandy forest under the pines have become more frequent.
At the same time, the fruit bodies are clearly depressed – small, dull colored, ugly in shape.
Description: A hat with a diameter of 3-12 (up to 20) cm, hemispherical, convex at maturity, flat-convex or cushion-shaped, in old age – flat, light reddish brown, chestnut, chocolate, olive, brownish and dark brown tones (in the rain – darker), occasionally even black-brown, with even, in young mushrooms with a bent, in mature – with a raised edge. The skin is smooth, dry, velvety, in wet weather – oily (shiny); not removable. When pressed on the yellowish tubular surface, bluish, blue-green, bluish (if pores are damaged) or even brownish-brown spots appear. The tubules are notched, weakly adherent or adherent, rounded or angular, notched, of various lengths (0.6-2 cm), with ribbed edges, from white to light yellow in youth, then yellow-green and even yellowish-olive. The pores are wide, medium-sized or small, monochromatic, angular.
A leg 3-12 (up to 14) cm high and 0.8-4 cm thick, dense, cylindrical, with a pointed base or swollen (tuberous), fibrous or smooth, often curved, less often fibrous-fine-scaly, solid, light brown , yellowish-brownish, yellow-brown or brown (lighter than the cap), lighter above and at the base (yellowish, white or fawn), without a reticular pattern, but longitudinally striated (with stripes of the color of the cap – red-brown fibers). When pressed, it turns blue, then turns brown.
The pulp is dense, fleshy, with a pleasant (fruity or mushroom) odor and a sweetish taste, whitish or light yellow, brownish under the skin of the cap, slightly blue on the cut, then turns brown, and finally turns white again. In adolescence, it is very hard, then it becomes softer. The spore powder is olive brown, brownish greenish or olive brown.
Doubles: For some reason inexperienced mushroom pickers sometimes confuse it with a birch or spruce cep, although the differences are obvious – the porcini mushroom has a barrel-shaped, lighter leg, a convex mesh on the leg, the pulp does not turn blue, etc. It differs from the inedible Bile mushroom ( Tylopilus felleus). Much more like mushrooms from the genus Xerocomus (Moss): the motley moss (Xerocomus chrysenteron) with a yellowish-brown cap that cracks with age, in which the red-pink tissue is exposed, the Brown moss (Xerocomus spadiceus) with yellow, reddish or dark a brown or dark brown cap with a diameter of up to 10 cm (a dry whitish-yellow tissue is visible in the cracks), with a punctured, fibrous-flaky, mealy, whitish-yellowish, yellow, then darkening leg, with a delicate red or rough light brown mesh on top and pinkish brown at the base; Green flywheel (Xerocomus subtomentosus) with a golden brown or brownish greenish cap (tubular layer golden brown or yellowish greenish), which cracks, exposing light yellow tissue, and a lighter stem.
Video about Polish mushroom:
Note: A popular and tasty edible mushroom (category 2) – especially in late autumn when other boletus go. The blue-blue color of the white flesh disappears during cooking. It is used in a variety of ways: fresh (in soups and roasts after boiling for 15 minutes), salted and pickled, dried (takes on a pleasant light yellow color) and frozen. According to V. Buldakov, it tastes like boletus. Once unscrupulous traders tried to pass it off as a dried porcini mushroom.
Photo of a mushroom Polish mushroom from the recognition questions:
