Mushroom pushers: important tips for mushroom pickers

To date, about one hundred thousand species of fungi are known in nature. Many of them are dangerous to human life, but most of them need only the right approach to harvesting and cooking.

To the little-known and requiring sufficient experience of the mushroom picker are mushrooms pushers. Virtually without nutrients, which have low taste qualities, they are rarely used for food, but still they are collected by amateurs.

general characteristics

On the territory of Russia, mushrooms pushers have one more name - "floats". They refer to the family of fly agaric and are characterized as conditionally edible. These mushrooms are often found both in coniferous forests, and in deciduous - oak, birch and beech. And collect them in the period from July to October. Fresh fruit bodies of these fungi contain betaine, which plays an important role in the metabolic processes of the human body.

The pushers have a too fragile bonnet, which makes them less suitable for transportation and contributes to the rare collection.

Description of floats

To properly collect mushrooms pushers, photos and a description of their appearance are required to study. Especially for those who go to the forest for the first time. After all, the similarity of these fungi with fly agarics and pallid toadstools can become pernicious for an inexperienced mushroom picker.

The hat at the pusher is campanulate, gradually turning into a rounded-out shape. Sometimes on it there is a wide tubercle. The diameter of the cap is from three to twelve centimeters. Its ribbed, furrowed edge indicates that the fungus belongs to the edible genus.

The color of the cap of the float, depending on its types, can be of numerous color shades: ash gray, yellow-gray, lead-gray with a bluish tint, white and even olive green. Collecting such gifts of nature, an experienced mushroom picker or amateur should be firmly sure that before him edible mushrooms are pushers.

A photo can not always convey a variety of color shades, so it is very important to know all the details of their appearance.

The skin of these mushrooms is dry, covered with white flakes, which eventually disappear. The flesh is white, tender, slightly sweet to the taste, without an expressive smell. The plates are bright, elastic and quite wide.

The float has a fragile white or dirty white leg. Its height is from 5 to 15 cm, and the thickness is from 0.8 to 2 cm. The lower part of the leg is hidden in the volvoe of a gray, brown or white hue.

Varieties of floats

Many mushroom pushers, photos and descriptions of which are very similar to each other, still belong to different species. The easiest way to distinguish them is from the volve. The gray float is predominantly gray. In saffron, umbrovo-yellow, large-volvovoy and yellow-brown fungus on it there are red-brown spots.

The snow-white float differs from its relatives in absolute whiteness. And only the center of his hat is gray or brown.

The most famous and the most collected among the representatives of a kind is the gray pusher.

False mushrooms

Very often in a basket of mushroom pickers, along with floats are poisonous pale toadstools and fly agarics. How can you not mix mushrooms with pushers? Photo and description, false types of floats should be carefully studied for an unmistakable determination of them at all stages of development.

The main difference between pushers from poisonous relatives is the absence of a ring on the leg. A characteristic feature of representatives of the inedible genus is the presence of flakes on a hat and tuber. The legs of the fly agarics and pale gerbils are not too fragile, they do not have a wide, rounded cavity, but they are crowned with warty girdles.

The dangerous similarity of floats with poisonous mushrooms annually causes poisoning of many people. Sometimes such cases result in lethal outcomes.

Secrets of cooking

Can the poisoners cause the mushroom pushers themselves? The photos and videos that recorded such cases, as well as eyewitness accounts, show that this happens not so rarely. And most often this is due to improper cooking of mushrooms. Floats contain resinous substances, so they can cause inflammation of the small intestine and stomach.

Nevertheless, mushrooms are used in food in many countries of the world in cooked or fried form. For proper preparation, they must be thoroughly cleaned of dirty and damaged particles, and after a thorough rinse. The cooking time of mushrooms is at least fifty minutes. To pickle or marinate floats, it is not necessary to soak them in addition or scald.

Mushrooms are used most often for drying, as well as for making delicious light soups, pies, salads, snacks and second courses.