What mushrooms look like saffron milk caps?
There are no frankly poisonous false mushrooms - all doubles are conditionally edible or inedible due to poor taste. However, you need to know the differences between different mushrooms, since the processing methods for real and false mushrooms are very different, and if you prepare the false type incorrectly, you can be seriously poisoned.
Amber milky
The milkweed belongs to the Russula family and is also called the roan milkweed, the inedible milkweed and the gray-pink milkweed. The false species usually grows in mixed and coniferous forest plantations next to moss, and is often found under spruce and pine trees, in wetlands.
Most amber lacticians can be seen in August and September, although they appear in forests as early as July.
Pink wave
Another doppelgänger from the Russula family, which has its own differences, is the pink trumpet, which grows in mixed forests and birch groves. It is usually found in damp areas and actively bears fruit in August and September.
Papillary milkweed
The mushroom, also called the large milk mushroom, also belongs to the Russula family. Unlike previous false varieties, it prefers sandy light soils and is most often found in the northern regions near birch trees. The peak growth of mushrooms similar to saffron milk caps traditionally occurs in August and early September.
Useful properties and composition
Calcium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamins A and B (riboflavin, thiamine and niacin), beneficial amino acids, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial substances - they are all contained in camelina.
The exact ratio of minerals in camelina: potassium - 397 mg, calcium - 9 mg, phosphorus - 166 mg.
The fungus contains fungin, a biologically active substance that stimulates the production of gastric juice. That is why people suffering from gastrointestinal diseases such as pancreatitis, gastritis, and stomach ulcers should stop eating saffron milk caps.
Saffron milk caps can replace a full meal
100 g of dried saffron milk caps will completely cover the daily need of the human body for meat.
Salted saffron milk cap is one of the most easily digestible foods and is superior in calories to beef and chicken.
What effect does the mushroom have on the human body?
- Increases performance and endurance. The mushroom contains a large amount of ascorbic acid, which has a tonic effect on the body.
- Creates strong bone tissue. The combination of three “building elements” of the skeleton and bones at once - phosphorus, calcium and potassium - significantly improves the condition of nails, bones and teeth.
- Antibacterial . The mushroom is saturated with a substance such as lactriviolin, a natural antibiotic that can fight such a serious infection as tuberculosis. It is from mushrooms that this substance is artificially obtained and used in the production of medicines against Koch's bacillus.
- Restores metabolic processes. Used in the treatment of skin spotting (vitiligo), rheumatism, pneumonia.
- Antitumor effect . When consumed regularly, organic saffron milk caps prevent the occurrence of cancer in the body.
Spruce saffron milk cap In addition to its high nutritional value - saffron milk caps are considered to be the highest type of mushroom in terms of usefulness and composition, they have another very significant advantage, most often it is a pure mushroom, without rot and soil, especially if it is collected after rain early in the morning. There is no need to soak it before processing, just rinse it.
What false saffron milk caps look like
To distinguish inedible or poisonous mushrooms that look like saffron milk caps, you need to have a good understanding of their external features. They have quite a lot of similar features, but there are also differences.
Appearance of the amber milky
The false mushroom has a pinkish-brown or grayish cap with a tubercle in the middle part. At a young age, the cap is spread out and flat; as it matures, it takes on the shape of a funnel, and the edges of the cap are curved down. Usually the surface of the skin is dry and glossy, but on rainy days it can become slippery. The lower part of the cap is covered with frequent plates of a descending type, white, pinkish or beige in color.
The leg of the milkweed is amber in the same color as the cap, but in the upper part it is a little lighter. The mushroom grows up to 9 cm in height, the diameter of the stem can be up to 2 cm. The structure is quite loose, hollow from the inside. When cut, the mushroom has light yellow, fragile and loose flesh; it does not change color when exposed to air, but releases watery juice.
Important! Amber milkweed is an inedible mushroom with a low level of toxicity. An important difference is the taste, which in poisonous saffron milk cap is pungent and bitter, and the chicory smell.
Appearance of a pink wave
It is quite difficult to confuse pink mushroom with saffron milk cap, but sometimes the differences between adult mushrooms turn out to be minimal. The volnushka has a large dense cap up to 12 cm in diameter, convex in young species and flat in adults. There is a small depression in the center of the cap, the edges are turned inward and pubescent, and concentric circles diverge along the surface of the cap. The color of the mushroom is similar to saffron milk cap, but paler - the mushroom, in accordance with its name, is usually light pink or grayish-pink, and the surface of its cap is slimy. The bottom of the mushroom is covered with white or pinkish frequent plates going down the stem.
The height of the wave usually rises to 6 cm above the soil surface. Its stem is cylindrical and hard, dense in young fruiting bodies, and hollow in adults. You can see small pits and fluff on the stem; the color is identical to the shade of the cap. The pulp is white, dense and juicy, does not change its color when cut, and produces white milky juice.
From the point of view of nutritional value, pink trumpet is conditionally edible; it can be used as food, but only after long processing. Therefore, it is dangerous not to notice the differences and confuse it with a completely edible mushroom that requires almost no processing; hastily prepared trumpet mushroom can easily cause poisoning.
Appearance of the papillary lacticifer
The false papillary lacticaria is most similar in structure to the orange mushroom. It also has a flat cap with a tubercle in the center, although in young mushrooms the cap is concave and straightens only as it matures. The diameter of the cap can reach 9 cm, it feels dry and fibrous to the touch, and its color is bluish-brown, gray-brown, slightly pinkish or even with a purple tint. Milky mushrooms are often referred to as porcini mushrooms, similar to saffron milk caps, because depending on the conditions they can be very light in color. The plates on the underside of young papillary lactaries are whitish, while in adults they are red, narrow and frequent, descending onto the stalk.
The mushroom rises above the ground by an average of 7 cm in height, its stem is cylindrical and thin, up to 2 cm in diameter. In an adult milkweed, the leg is hollow inside and smooth; in color at a young age it is light, but then acquires the shade of a cap.
If you cut the papillary milkweed, its flesh will be dense, but brittle and uneven. When cut, the false species releases a small amount of milky juice; both the pulp and the juice are white in color.
The mushroom belongs to the category of conditionally edible - its smell is coconut, and its taste is bitter and unpleasant. Therefore, before eating it, it is soaked for a long time in salted water to improve its taste, and is most often consumed in pickling.
Contraindications
There are few contraindications. Large portions of saffron milk caps:
- cause constipation;
- muscles atrophy;
- reduce overall tone;
- aggravate cholecystitis and pancreatitis;
- reduce the acidity of gastric juice;
- individually intolerable.
The product should not be consumed after removal of the gallbladder. Saffron milk caps can cause harm if they are confused with false mushrooms that are similar in appearance. Consequences of use:
- madness;
- fatal poisoning.
They collect saffron milk caps when they understand the types of mushrooms.
Fresh saffron milk caps are low in calories, salted and pickled mushrooms are nutritious. Overweight people are not advised to eat saffron milk caps cooked in brine or marinade.
How to distinguish saffron milk cap from false saffron milk cap
The main similarity between real and false mushrooms is the structure of the cap and stem. True saffron milk cap, like its poisonous counterparts, has a wide cap with a small depression in the center and curved edges. You can often notice diverging circles on the surface of the cap, which is why it is confused, for example, with a pink wave. The underside is also covered with thin plates, and the leg has a cylindrical shape.
Since there are many varieties of the true orange mushroom, it is often difficult to distinguish the false mushroom from the true one by color. The mushroom can have an orange, brownish, gray-brown, brown, greenish or pinkish color, the color depends on the species, the place of growth, and the age.
However, there are quite enough differences between real saffron milk cap:
- The main difference is the color of the milky juice. If you cut a real saffron milk cap, its flesh will release a certain amount of orange or reddish liquid. In false doubles, the juice is usually white. In addition, the milky juice of camelina quickly turns green or brown in the air, but the juice of false doubles does not change its color.
- A similar difference applies to the pulp. When broken, the true form is usually orange or pinkish in color, and its flesh also quickly changes color when exposed to air - becoming green or reddish depending on the type. This is not typical for false doubles; after a while, their cut flesh may only turn slightly yellow.
- Another difference is that if you press from below on the blades of spruce, pine or red camelina, a greenish spot will remain under your finger.
The difference between false and real camelina lies in the places of distribution. True species grow mainly in coniferous forests - pine forests form a symbiosis with pines, spruce trees are found under spruce trees. In birch forests and mixed plantings they can be found less frequently, unlike false ones, which are widespread everywhere.
Attention! Sometimes in the forests you can find a mushroom that looks like a camelina, without plates. The difference is that the underside of its cap is covered with a strange whitish coating. In fact, this mushroom is one of the common saffron milk caps - it’s just that during the growth process it was affected by hypomyces, a mold fungus that is safe for humans.
First aid
In case of mushroom poisoning, the time factor plays an important role. At the first signs of illness, you should immediately call an ambulance.
Before the doctors arrive:
- Clear the stomach of mycotoxins: drink at least 1.5 - 2 liters of salted water and induce vomiting.
- Bind toxins in the intestines by taking up to 10 tablets of activated carbon (usually take 1 tablet of this sorbent per 10 kg of the victim’s weight).
- Take a laxative.
If possible, find out what mushrooms the poisoning occurred and then report this information to doctors.
Early morning in the forest
Early morning in the forest. The first rays of the sun lit the tops of the trees, covered the trunks and branches of hundred-year-old pines with gold and bronze and, penetrating deep into the mixed forest, scattered there as light spots - mushroom pickers are already wandering through the forest. To be in the forest at dawn and meet the sunrise there - this is the usual rule mushroom picker In these early hours you feel especially cheerful, and the forest at this time is unusually beautiful, and there are more mushrooms in it.
The morning silence seems extraordinary. No birds have been heard yet. Only occasionally, flying over the forest, a raven lets out a guttural “krogg”, a thieving magpie becomes worried and chatters when it notices a person, and a woodpecker’s “tapping” of the tree can be heard from the top of an old pine tree.
The forest in which we are describing is located along the sandy hills (dunes) on the left bank of the Volga. This is a light steppe forest, which are not uncommon in places where the Trans-Volga taiga and the cheerful forest-steppe collide with oak groves and grassy dry lands of the south. It is not uncommon to find representatives of the steppe that once penetrated here, and here some steppe and forest-steppe grasses are found that found shelter here in the pine forest. The steppe went to the south, but its herbs were preserved in some places.
Your attention is drawn to the crimson clumps of fragrant thyme, or Bogorodsk grass, scattered on both sides of the path; Every now and then you come across dense bushes of small leaves with white sandy carnation flowers on a thin stalk, beautifully cut silver-fluffy leaves and large inflorescences-baskets of pink cornflower, blue rather large flowers of the snakehead, really similar to the small open mouths of a multi-headed fairy-tale snake.
And everywhere there are lush bushes of finely dissected leaves of long-faded dream grass. Its large purple flowers, known as snowdrops, delight us as the first messengers of “green friends” awakening from their winter sleep.
We chose this particular forest, since along the planned route it is convenient to go from it to forests of other types - green moss forest, lingonberry, and then, closer to the floodplain, into a spruce forest (more: What types of forests) and, finally, into black forest - with oak, linden, birch, aspen and other hardwoods.
Having passed a small area of tall pine forest, poor in mushrooms, we emerge into a small pine forest.
