Tiger saw-leaf (Lentinus tigrinus)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Incertae sedis (undefined)
- Order: Polyporales
- Family: Polyporaceae (Polyporous)
- Genus: Lentinus (Saw-leaf)
- Species: Lentinus tigrinus (Tiger saw-leaf)
Synonyms :
Omphalia tigrina
- Clitocybe tigrina
- Lentodium tigrinum
- Panus tigrinus
Mushroom Tiger Sawfoot, or Lentinus tigrinus, is considered a wood-destroying fungus. According to its taste, it is considered a conditionally edible mushroom of the third, and sometimes the fourth category. It has a high protein content and excellent mycelium digestibility, but becomes quite tough in adulthood.
External description
Hat : 4-8 (up to 10) cm in diameter. Dry, dense, leathery. White, whitish, slightly yellowish, creamy, nutty. Covered with concentrically located brown, almost black fibrous bristly scales, often darker and densely located in the center of the cap.
In young mushrooms, it is convex with a turned-up edge, later it is depressed in the center, it can acquire a funnel-shaped shape, with a thin, often uneven and bursting edge.
Plates : Descending, frequent, narrow, white, yellowing to ocher with age, with a slightly but quite noticeably uneven, jagged edge.
Leg : 3-8 cm high and up to 1.5 cm wide, central or eccentric. Thick, stiff, even or slightly curved. Cylindrical, narrowed towards the base, at the very bottom it can be stretched out in a tapered manner and immersed in the wood. It may have some kind of ring-shaped "band" below the attachment of the plates. White at the plates, below the "belt" - darker, brownish, brownish. Covered with small concentric, brownish, sparse scales.
Flesh : thin, dense, tough, leathery. White, whitish, sometimes turns yellow with age.
Smell and taste : no particular smell or taste. Some sources indicate a "pungent" smell. Apparently, for the formation of taste and smell, it is of great importance on the stump of which tree the saw-leaf grew.
Spore powder : white.
Spores 7-8x3-3.5 microns, ellipsoidal, colorless, smooth.
Season and habitat of the fungus
Summer-autumn, from late July to September (for central Russia). In the southern regions - from April. It grows in rather large intergrowths and groups on valezha, stumps and trunks of mainly deciduous species: oak, poplar, willow, and fruit trees. It is not often found, but it does not belong to rare mushrooms.
Distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the mushroom is known in Europe and Asia. Tiger sawfoot is harvested in the Urals, in the forests of the Far East and in the vast Siberian wild forest thickets. Feels great in forest belts, parks, on roadsides, especially in those places where poplars were massively cut down. Can grow in urban areas.
Edibility
Various sources indicate the mushroom as edible, but with varying degrees of edibility. The information about taste is also very contradictory. Basically, the mushroom is ranked among the little-known edible mushrooms of poor quality (due to the tough pulp). However, at a young age, tiger saw-leaf is quite suitable for eating, especially the hat. Pre-boiling is recommended. The mushroom is suitable for salting and pickling, can be eaten boiled or fried (after boiling).
Other information about the mushroom
In some sources, the mushroom belongs to the poisonous or inedible type of mushroom. But there is currently no evidence of the toxicity of tiger sawfoot.