Pig (Paxillus involutus)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Boletales
- Family: Paxillaceae (Piggies)
- Genus: Paxillus (Pig)
- Species: Paxillus involutus (Pig)
- Other names for the mushroom:
- The pig is thin
- Piggy
- Cowshed
- Matryoshka
Synonyms:
- Cowshed
- Matryoshka
- Filly
- Pigs
- Pig
- Pig
- Pig
- Pig ear
Pig ( lat.Paxillus involutus ) or simply Pig is a mushroom of the Pig family. Until 1981, this mushroom was considered conditionally edible and belonged to the 4th category for food qualities. Currently, the Pig is classified as poisonous, although many mushroom pickers disagree with this statement.
External description
The pig's cap is 12-15 cm in ∅, fleshy , at first slightly convex , then flat , in the middle, funnel-shaped-depressed , with a strongly wrapped furry-tomentose velvety edge, in a young mushroom it is olive-brown, fibrous-fluffy, in mature mushrooms it is buffy-brown or reddish, rusty, gradually fading, with a shiny bare skin.
The pulp is yellowish, soft, friable, without a special smell and taste; on the cut it changes color - turns brown.
The plates are ocher-yellow, wide, sparse, descending along the pedicle. Often they are interconnected by jumpers and form a mesh grid. The spore powder is brown. Spores are ellipsoidal, smooth.
The leg is up to 9 cm in length, 1-1.5 cm ∅, central, less often eccentric, often narrowed to the bottom, dense, cylindrical.
Spread
The pig grows in deciduous and coniferous forests, most often in young birch forests, oak forests and shrubs, along the edges of ravines and sphagnum bogs, on the edges of meadows, as well as near the mossy bases of spruce and pine trees, on the roots of upturned trees. Occurs on moist soil often and abundantly in groups, less often singly.
Pig bears fruit from June to October.
Edibility
Many sources, especially fresh publications, claim that the mushroom is poisonous . Not fatal, but most of the harmful impurities contained in the pig accumulate in the human body and are not excreted in the course of normal life.
But, if you already decided to use pigs, then we recommend boiling them several times before using, and each time in clean water. Also, some people have an individual intolerance to this mushroom, so if you haven't eaten pigs before, and after all you've read, you still decided to do this, then you need to start eating pigs with small portions no more than 1 time a day.
The most common use of pigs is salting. But some mushroom pickers consider the pig to be a universal mushroom that can be fried, pickled, dried.
Another negative property of the pig is its ability to very strongly absorb any chemistry, radioisotopes, heavy metals (lead) from the surrounding fields and roads. Therefore, it is not recommended to pick mushrooms, especially pigs, near roads, chemical plants, and even more so at nuclear power plants. Collect them deeper in the forest. Salts of lead and other heavy metals are poisonous, they accumulate well in fungi and the human body. Table salt and acetic acid dissolves radioisotopes and heavy metal salts in mushrooms and removes them into solution. For this, pigs need to be soaked for 24 hours, changing the water (preferably salted) every few hours, then the obligatory boiling in salt water, changing the water, until the water remains light.
Video about the Pig mushroom:
Remarks
In some areas, pigs, pigs, etc. called the black lump (Lactarius necator).