Early Pole (Agrocybe praecox)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
- Family: Strophariaceae (Strophariaceae)
- Genus: Agrocybe (Agrocybe)
- Species: Agrocybe praecox (Early polewort)
- Other names for the mushroom:
- Agrocybe early
- Early scaly
- Early vole
Other names:
Early vole
Agrocybe early
Early scaly
- Pholiota praecox
Early vole (Latin Agrocybe praecox ) is a mushroom of the Bolbitiaceae family. There are also known no less common synonyms, such as early scaly (Pholiota praecox) and early agrocybe .
Hat:
The width is 3-8 cm, in youth it is hemispherical with a distinct "cushion-like" shape, with age it opens up to prostrate. The color is vaguely yellowish, light clay, sometimes fading in the sun to a dirty whitish color. In wet weather, faint signs of "zoning" can be found on the cap. The remnants of a private bedspread often remain on the edges of the cap, which gives this mushroom a resemblance to representatives of the genus Psathyrella. The flesh of the cap is whitish, thin, with a pleasant mushroom smell.
Plates:
Quite frequent, wide, adherent to the "tooth"; in youth, light, yellowish, with age, as the spores mature, darken to dirty brown.
Spore powder:
Tobacco brown.
Leg:
The same color as the hat, darker at the bottom. The leg is hollow, but at the same time very stiff and fibrous. Height 5-8 cm, in the grass it can be higher; thickness up to 1 cm, although usually thinner. In the upper part, the remains of the ring, as a rule, are somewhat darker than the stem itself (they become even darker when the mushroom matures, being decorated with falling spores). The flesh is brownish, especially at the bottom.
Spread:
Early vole occurs from early June to mid-July in gardens, parks, along the edges of forest roads, preferring rich soils; can settle on strongly rotted wood remains. In some seasons, it can bear fruit very abundantly, although it usually comes across less often.
Similar species:
Considering the timing of growth, it is rather difficult to confuse the early vole with any other fungus. Closely related and outwardly similar species (such as Agrocybe elatella) are much less common. But it is much more difficult to distinguish it from the tough agrocybe (Agrocybe dura), the tough vole is usually whiter in appearance, grows more on silage than on wood remains, and its spores are several micrometers larger.
Edibility:
Early Pole - Normal edible mushroom, although some sources indicate bitterness.
Notes:
In the collector's understanding, Agrocybe praecox is a kind of "unfinished champignon". Growing conditions, discs darkening with age, strong dependence of size and weight on soil fertility - all this gives the right to treat this field field as a champignon for the poor and hasty. Having met an old woman in the forest with a basket of selected agrocybes, I asked what she collects. “Why, chamignons, we eat them every year,” she replied. Inspired by this example, I also recruited early agrocytes and treated my friends. Champignons for ourselves and champignons, if you do not go into details, except for our brother, are of little interest to anyone.