Astringent (Postia stiptica)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Incertae sedis (undefined)
- Order: Polyporales
- Family: Fomitopsidaceae (Fomitopsis)
- Genus: Postia (Postia)
- Kind: Postia stiptica (Postia knitting)
- Other names for the mushroom:
- Oligoporus astringent
- Oligoporus stipticus
- Polyporus stipticus
- Leptoporus stipticus
- Spongiporus stipticus
Synonyms:
Oligoporus astringent
- Oligoporus stipticus
- Spongiporus stipticus
- Tyromyces stipticus
- Polyporus stipticus
- Leptoporus stipticus
Photo by: Natalia Demchenko
Astringent post is a very unpretentious tinder fungus. It is found everywhere, attracting attention with the white color of the fruit bodies.
Also, this mushroom has a very interesting feature - young bodies are often gutted, releasing drops of a special liquid (as if the mushroom is "crying").
Postia knitting (Postia stiptica) is an annual tinder fungus, has medium-sized fruiting bodies (although some specimens can be quite large).
The shape of the bodies is different: kidney-shaped, semicircular, triangular, shell-shaped.
Color - milky white, cream, bright. The edges of the caps are sharp, less often blunt. Mushrooms can grow singly, as well as in groups, growing together.
The pulp is very juicy and fleshy. It tastes very bitter. The thickness of the caps can reach 3-4 centimeters, depending on the growing conditions of the mushroom. The surface of the bodies is bare, and also with slight pubescence. In mature mushrooms, tubercles, wrinkles, and roughness appear on the cap. The hymenophore is tubular (like most tinder fungi), the color is white, maybe with a slight yellowish tinge.
Season and habitat of the fungus
Postia astringent (Postia stiptica) is a mushroom that is unpretentious to the conditions of its habitat. Most often, it grows on coniferous wood. Rarely, but nevertheless, you can find posttia knitting on deciduous trees. Active fruiting of mushrooms of this genus occurs from mid-summer to the very end of autumn. It is very simple to identify this type of mushroom, because the fruiting bodies of the postia astringent are very large and taste bitter.
Posttia viscous bears fruit from July to October inclusive, on stumps and dead trunks of coniferous trees, in particular, pines, spruces, fir. Sometimes this type of fungus can be seen on the wood of deciduous trees (oak, beech).
Edibility
Astringent postia (Postia stiptica) is one of the little-studied mushrooms, and many experienced mushroom pickers consider it inedible because of the viscous and bitter taste of the pulp.
Similar types and differences from them
The main species, similar to the astringent post, is the inedible poisonous mushroom aurantioporus fractured. The latter, however, has a milder taste, and grows mainly on deciduous wood. Mostly fractured aurantioporus can be seen on the trunks of aspens or apple trees. The outwardly described type of mushroom is similar to other fruiting bodies from the genus Tyromytes or Postia. But other varieties of mushrooms do not taste as viscous and rancid as Postia stiptica.
Other information about the mushroom
Droplets of transparent moisture, sometimes whitish in color, often appear on the fruiting bodies of the post astringent. This process is called gutting, and it manifests itself mainly in young fruiting bodies.