False white mushroom: description and photo

Real mushroom pickers know that the most delicious and fragrant representatives of the mushroom kingdom are mushrooms and fat mushrooms.

Beginning mushroom pickers, unlike experienced ones, often send a false porcini mushroom into the basket, not suspecting how bitter it tastes and is life-threatening. To prevent this from happening to you, we will find out what it looks like, where it grows and what kind of health hazard poses an imitation of boletus.

False white mushroom: description

gall fungus

Most often, mushrooms are confused with gall fungus.

gall mushroom - Tylopilus felleus

Bitter mushrooms from the genus Tilopil and the family Boletovye, popularly referred to as bitter, mustard or hare mushroom. Outwardly, the mustard resembles a porcini mushroom.

The diameter of its cap can reach 15 cm, but on average it is about 4-10 cm. The cap, which at first has the shape of a hemisphere, subsequently expands and becomes flatter, prostrate. The color of the hat varies from yellow-brown to dark brown, there are specimens with a gray-ocher hat. In wet weather, it becomes sticky.

A strong and heavy leg of the gall fungus with whitish flesh grows up to 1.5-3 cm thick and 3-12.5 cm high. Distinguished by a swollen, fibrous base, club or cylinder shape, and color variation from cream to brown-yellow. In the upper part, a clearly traced dark or creamy yellow mesh is noticeable.

The pulp, reddening on the cut, is not damaged by worms, has a slight odor and a bitter taste. A tubular layer, consisting of white tubules fading to pink and pinkish-gray tones, is attached to the stem of the mushroom.

The spores of the false white fungus are ellipsoid, colorless (occasionally pinkish-gray) and smooth, the spore powder is pink-brown or pale pink.

Even after boiling or frying, the taste of the mushroom does not change for the better, but, on the contrary, becomes even more bitter, so the bitter is classified as an inedible mushroom.

False white mushrooms are usually found in forests with coniferous trees, on light loamy or acidic fertile soils, sandstones. Occasionally, bittersweet grows on half-decayed stumps or tree bases. It is found everywhere, on any continent, in Russia it usually grows in the middle lane.

False white mushrooms, fruiting from early summer to September-October, form small groups or grow separately.

Young bitters are similar not only to mushrooms, but also to boletus.

satanic mushroom

Satanic mushroom - Boletus satanas

Mushroom from the family Boletovye and the genus Borovik.

It has a velvety or smooth hat with a diameter of 8-30 cm, growing in the form of a hemisphere, and gradually turning into a flat hat. It can be painted in different colors - from whitish to olive-gray, sometimes with yellow-pink or green stains.

The yellowish or white flesh turns red or blue when cut, and in more mature mushrooms it emits a sharp unpleasant odor.

The leg of the satanic mushroom, decorated with a mesh pattern with rounded cells, reaches 3-10 cm in thickness and 5-15 cm in height. The shape of the leg at first resembles a ball or an egg, then it becomes like a turnip, a barrel or a tuber. From above, the leg of the mushroom is painted red-yellow, in the middle - red-orange, and below - yellow-brown.

The tubular mass is yellowish, after yellow-green.

Spores are smooth, yellow, spore powder is either olive brown or olive.

The satanic mushroom grows in spacious deciduous forests with oaks, lindens, hornbeams, beech, and hazel. From June to September it bears fruit in the southern part of Primorye, in the Caucasus, the European part of Russia, in the Middle East.

Carefully look at the photos of satanic and hare mushrooms to know for the future what a false porcini mushroom looks like.

False porcini mushroom poisoning

1. Satanic fungus poisoning. Poisoning with this false fungus passes in the usual form: diarrhea, vomiting, dizziness, and manifests itself within half an hour after eating. Fatal cases of satanic fungus poisoning are very rare.
2. Poisoning with gall fungus. To be poisoned by hare fungus, you must first eat it, which is hindered by the unbearably bitter taste that it acquires after heat treatment. In addition, if you put a piece of this mushroom on your tongue, it will begin to burn mercilessly. But you can get poisoned with bitters if, for example, it is pickled with real mushrooms in one jar, because the bitter taste will not be noticeable due to vinegar or seasonings. If you eat a few false white mushrooms, the following symptoms of poisoning will be observed:

• Weakness. After a day, the head begins to spin, there is a general weakness, which will soon disappear. This is how toxins act, being absorbed into the blood.
• Liver disorders. After a few weeks, toxins that negatively affect liver cells will interfere with the normal flow of bile. If a lot of mushrooms are eaten, the result can be even worse - cirrhosis of the liver.

That is why worms and other animals try to bypass the false white fungus. Treat mushroom picking more carefully, and you will avoid problems with the liver and other organs.