Blushing Umbrella (Chlorophyllum rhacodes)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
- Family: Agaricaceae (Champignon)
- Genus: Chlorophyllum (Chlorophyllum)
- Species: Chlorophyllum rhacodes (Umbrella blushing)
Synonyms:
Shaggy umbrella
Chicken coop
Hat:
In a blushing umbrella, the diameter of the cap is from 10-15 cm (up to 30), first ovoid or spherical, then hemispherical, umbrella-shaped. The color of the cap is brown, with various shades. Adult specimens are densely covered with brown fibrous, tile-like scales, which are completely absent in young specimens. In the center, the cap is darker, without scales. The pulp is white, thick, becomes wadded with age, turns red on the cut. The smell and taste are weak, pleasant.
Plates:
The plates at the blushing umbrella are attached to the collarium (a cartilaginous ring at the junction of the cap and the leg), frequent, at first creamy white, then with a reddish tint.
Spore powder:
White.
Leg:
Long, up to 20 cm, 1-2 cm in diameter, in youth, strongly thickened at the bottom, then cylindrical with a tuberous base, hollow, fibrous, smooth, gray-brown. It is often deeply immersed in fallen needles. The ring is not wide, collected, mobile, brownish.
Spread:
The red umbrella grows from July to the end of October in spruce and mixed forests, often adjacent to anthills. During the period of abundant fruiting (usually the end of August) it can grow in very large groups. It can also bear fruit abundantly in October, during the "late mushrooms" period.
Similar species:
It is often confused with a variegated umbrella (Macrolepiota procera), from which it differs in the place of growth (although not always), in smaller size, a much more shaggy cap, a smooth leg (in a variegated umbrella it is covered with transverse cracks and small scales), a darker ring, and the main thing is the pulp, which rapidly turns red at the break, especially in the leg.
Edibility:
Among understanding people, the blushing umbrella is considered an excellent edible mushroom. The legs are said to be inedible due to their rigidity. I would argue with both the first and second statements ...
Remarks
Needless to say, an umbrella is a beautiful mushroom. Of course, this species, unlike Macrolepiota procera, is devoid of any grotesque, and rarely grows to the size of a good stool, but this, in my opinion, is already superfluous. A blushing umbrella is a bright mushroom with an established character, meeting with it is always a holiday. But it is probably not worth depriving the old dark spruce forest of such decoration: the gastronomic glory of umbrellas, in my opinion, is greatly exaggerated. Cotton knitting pulp will delight only the deliberate lover. In a hungry year, however, you can chew on the elastic fibrous legs, having previously marinated them with spices. It turns out a little worse than autumn mushrooms.