These mysterious xylotrophs - we get acquainted with wood mushrooms

For sure many of us saw this picture more than once: we are grown up by a lot of us, we can see a lot of us, we will have a good reason for many of us, we can see a lot of us, we will have a good reason for many of us, we can see this picture on stumps, trunks and trees, and we will have a good example of us who grow up and have a lot of them, we can see you, we will have a good reason, many of us saw this picture more than once: on the stumps, trunks and trees we grow, we are raised by our father, and we will have a good people who grow up and we will have a good reason for many people:all mushroom bodies with legs and caps. These are xylotrophic - a separate group of tree fungi that grow on tree species and receive food from there.

By nature, they are parasites and the appearance of such fungi in forest or horticultural crops means that the latter will die sooner or later. Spores penetrate the wood through the slightest crack in the trunk, settle there and begin to actively proliferate. Xylotrophs secrete special enzymes that break down woody polysaccharides, including cellulose, and in this way feeds the mycelium, taking nutrients from the tree. Due to the high concentration of carbon dioxide inside the wood formed during the development of the mycelium, the growth processes of tree fungi have a high speed.

Some species prefer to settle on dead trees, while others prefer only living wood, and there are mushrooms for which it does not really matter. Take at least honey agaric - they are able to develop on any species, regardless of whether it is a dead tree or not.

Most tree fungi have a large, large cap and short stem, or there is none at all, and the flesh has a rigid structure. Some specimens can not be separated from the owner, so many people think that xylotrophs are not in the kitchenIndeed, inedible species of tree fungi predominate in their numbers, but among them there are mushrooms with good gastronomic characteristics.

Delicious edible xylotrophic

One of the most famous edible tree mushrooms is everyone's favorite oyster mushroom. Under natural conditions, their mass accumulation can be seen in the Crimean deciduous forests, but also oyster mushrooms are successfully grown in artificial conditions on a special substrate. They grow in large families, the weight of one can exceed 3 kg. One of the most delicious and easy to grow mushrooms is oyster oyster or oyster mushroom. It grows with large, multi-tiered and dense “nests”; large caps with a diameter of up to 25 cm have the shape of a funnel and tucked edges. As for coloring, they are most often light ashen, although other color variations are also found, from yellowish to dark gray. Rare, wide and white plates are located under the cap, which turn yellow in old mushrooms. The short leg is almost invisible. The flesh smells good, white, dense structure.

Oyster mushrooms can live on almost all hardwoods, dead or weakened. The only exception is oak.

In addition to oyster mushrooms, edible tree mushrooms include:

1. Winter Garment( it is also a winter mushroom, Colliby is velvety-spiny, enokitake).A small cap with a diameter of up to 10 cm convex, painted in yellow-brown color. The stem is thin, tubular, brown, with a reddish tinge at the top. The flesh is fragile, yellow, smells good, tasty. You can even eat old mushrooms, but without legs.
2. Shiitake( aka imperial mushroom, lentinula edible or Japanese forest mushroom).The mushroom is similar in shape to meadow champignon: an umbrella-shaped brown cap with light plates and dry scaly skin grows on a fibrous stem. The flesh is light, fleshy, with a light peppercorn. Widely used in Chinese medicine due to not only high culinary, but also its healing properties.
3. M'Ur( aka black Chinese mushroom, ear-shaped auricularia or Judah's ear).It prefers dead alder trees, it grows in nature mainly in China, but here it is found in the East. The fruit body is thin, in the form of the auricle, brown. The flesh is soft, jelly-like and silky, slightly crunches, but becomes coarse with age. Therapeutic.
4. Tinder is sulfur-yellow( he is a chicken mushroom or witch sulfur).It grows on weakened living deciduous trees in the form of layered growths of yellow-orange color. The young flesh is very tender, juicy and tasty, the old - hard, dry and sour.
5. Griffin Curly( aka ram mushroom, tindery leafy or Maitake).It grows mainly on the stumps of broadleaved species. The fruit body consists of a set of legs, smoothly turning into leaf-shaped caps with wavy edges, painted in a gray-green-brown color with a darker center. The pulp smells like nuts, light and fragile. Old mushrooms are dark and tough.

Among the species of tree fungi growing in the form of growth, young fruit bodies are the most delicious.

Inedible, but very useful xylotrophic

As already mentioned, most tree fungi have hard pulp, which is not fun to eat at all, and in some cases is simply impossible, so hard it is. However, among them there are very valuable specimens from a medical point of view. On their basis, make remedies that help fight against many diseases, including such as oncology.

Some of the most useful wood inedible fungi are:

1. Chaga larch birch. Fruiting hoof-shaped body with a rough, in cracks. Peel off-white, darker with age. The long-liver, parasitizes on a tree to 20 years, the weight of one mushroom reaches 3 kg. Pulp chaga yellowish. Most of the nutrients in young fungi growing on living trees.
2. Tin lacquered( aka Reishi).It grows on stumps and sick of deciduous trees. It has a small, but very dense leg, attached to the side of a very beautiful egg-shaped hat. The surface of the lacquered tinder is shiny and wavy. On the head go the rings of a darker shade than the main color. The color can be different: orange, red and even yellow-black. The pulp without taste and smell is spongy at first, but it quickly becomes wooden.