White mushroom (Boletus edulis)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Boletales
- Family: Boletaceae
- Genus: Boletus (Borovik)
- Species: Boletus edulis (White mushroom)
or
Borovik
Description
White mushroom (Latin Boletus edulis ) is a mushroom from the Borovik genus.
Hat:
The color of the cap of the porcini mushroom, depending on the growing conditions, varies from whitish to dark brown, sometimes (especially in the pine and spruce varieties) with a reddish tint. The shape of the cap is hemispherical at first, later cushion-shaped, convex, very fleshy, up to 25 cm in diameter. The surface of the cap is smooth, slightly velvety. The pulp is white, dense, thick, does not change color at the break, practically odorless, with a pleasant nutty taste.
Leg:
The porcini mushroom has a very massive leg, height up to 20 cm, thickness up to 5 cm, solid, cylindrical, widened at the base, white or light brown, with a light mesh pattern in the upper part. As a rule, a significant part of the leg is located underground, in the litter.
Spore-bearing layer:
Initially white, then successively turns yellow and green. The pores are small, rounded.
Spore powder:
Olive brown.
Spread
Various varieties of white fungus grow in deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests from early summer to October (intermittently), forming mycorrhiza with various types of trees. Fruiting in the so-called "waves" (early June, mid-July, August, etc.). The first wave is usually not very plentiful, while one of the subsequent waves is often incomparably more productive than the rest.
It is popularly believed that the porcini mushroom (or at least its massive release) accompanies the red fly agaric (Amanita muscaria). That is, the fly agaric went - the white one went too. Whether it is so or not, God knows.
Similar species:
Gall mushroom (Tylopilus felleus)
in youth it looks like a white mushroom (later it becomes more like a boletus (Leccinum scabrum)). It differs from white gall mushroom primarily in bitterness, which makes this mushroom absolutely inedible, as well as in the pinkish color of the tubular layer, turning pink (unfortunately, sometimes too weakly) at the fracture with pulp and a dark mesh pattern on the stem. It can also be noted that the pulp of the gall mushroom is always unusually clean and untouched by worms, while in the porcini you understand ...
Common oak tree (Suillellus luridus)
and Boletus eruthropus - common oak trees, also confused with porcini. However, it should be remembered that the flesh of the porcini mushroom never changes color, remaining white even in the soup, which cannot be said about the actively blue oak trees.Edibility
It is considered to be the best mushroom. Used in any form.
Growing porcini mushroom
Industrial cultivation of porcini mushroom is unprofitable, therefore it is bred only by amateur mushroom growers.
For cultivation, it is first of all necessary to create conditions for the formation of mycorrhiza. Household plots are used, where deciduous and coniferous trees characteristic of the fungus habitat are planted or natural forest areas are isolated. It is best to use young groves and plantings (aged 5-10 years) of birch, oak, pine or spruce.
In the late XIX - early XX century. In Russia, the following method was widespread: overripe mushrooms were kept for about a day in water and mixed, then filtered and thus a spore suspension was obtained. They watered areas under trees with it. Currently, artificially grown mycelium can be used for sowing, but usually natural material is taken. You can take a tubular layer of mature mushrooms (aged 6-8 days), which is slightly dried and sown in small pieces under the soil litter. After sowing the spores, the crop can be obtained in the second or third year. Sometimes the soil with mycelium taken from the forest is used as seedlings: a square area 20-30 cm in size and 10-15 cm deep is cut around the found porcini mushroom with a sharp knife. For sowing with mycelium or soil with mycelium, pre-prepared compost of fallen oak leaves is used.pure horse manure and a small addition of rotten oak wood, during composting, watered with a 1% solution of ammonium nitrate. Then, in a shaded area, a layer of soil is removed and placed in 2-3 layers of humus, sprinkling the layers with earth. The mycelium is planted on the resulting bed to a depth of 5-7 centimeters, the bed is moistened and covered with a layer of leaves.
The yield of porcini mushroom reaches 64-260 kg / ha per season.
Remarks
You can write a novel about the porcini mushroom. To write, but not to write: the porcini mushroom will still not fit into the framework of the novel. There are many beautiful mushrooms, but where else can you find a mushroom near which you want to sit and die peacefully, because nothing will be better? It's easy with white. You just need to find ...
The cep is the antipode of the pale toadstool (Amanita phalloides). The toadstool breathes aesthetics, the toadstool is impeccable in every detail ... but for some reason it doesn't please. (Although, of course, it is clear why.) A porcini mushroom is a completely different matter. Not always correct, not too elegant, simple.
The white mushroom is loved by worms. It happens, a fungus from a fist, and already dust. It also happens differently: the mushroom is healthy, but almost pure, almost, but not quite: sometimes it seems that the worms have already eaten, hatched into flies and flew to other mushrooms, and this one cheered up, tightened the worm tunnels and began a new life. Is it real? Who knows. However, what's the difference: if there are no live worms, then it doesn't matter who ate it before me.