The content of the article
The motley umbrella is a mushroom widely known to many mushroom pickers and belongs to the champignon family. With favorable climatic and weather conditions, this type of mushroom can reach gigantic sizes - up to 0.5 m. At the same time, often silent lovers avoid such specimens by the side, because such large mushrooms inspire fear and make them doubt edible.
Although this type of mushroom grows in many countries, however, its taste characteristics are far from being appreciated everywhere. For example, in Italy only young mushrooms are used for cooking, the opening of the cap of which has not yet occurred. All specimens are used for culinary purposes on the territory of our country.
Description of the species
This type of mushroom received its name due to the characteristic shape of the cap. Of all the edible members of the champignon family, the umbrella is the most common, especially in the northern hemisphere (a region with a temperate climate).Note that due to the unique appearance, this species of mushroom is difficult to confuse with any other species.
The cap of the mushroom is rather large, egg-shaped, reaching a diameter of 35-40 cm. As the mushroom grows older, the cap becomes umbrella-shaped with a slight bulge in the center and slightly curved edges. The surface is a fibrous, grayish-brown color, covered with large angular scales, which are quite easy to exfoliate. The flesh of the cap is fleshy, white in color, the taste and smell of the pulp are pleasant (characteristic mushroom).
The motley umbrella leg is also quite large, as is the body of the cap, and can be as long as 300 mm with a diameter of 30 mm. The shape is regular, cylindrical, the inner part is hollow, with a slight thickening at the base. The legs are brownish, with small dark scales visible on the surface. The ring on the leg is large enough, moves freely.
Spore powder mottled umbrella beige shade. The width of the plates reaches 2 cm, densely arranged, the color varies from white to pinkish.
Distribution of species
Peak fruiting time - from the beginning of summer until the autumn. For the growth of mushrooms requires heat and moisture, so in periods of intense rain or a significant decrease in air temperature is almost not found. The mushroom is easy to notice due to its main feature - impressive size.
Edibility
As mentioned above, the colorful umbrella is an edible mushroom with excellent taste, so it is not surprising that many mushroom pickers consider it one of the best edible species. Umbrella hats can be grilled, added after heat treatment in salads. As a rule, the leg has a more dense and stiff pulp, because of which it is mostly dried, and later used as a seasoning with a pronounced mushroom aroma for cooking various dishes.
Large and old mushrooms with dense flesh, often fermented. We draw attention to the fact that the preparation of umbrellas implies mandatory pre-treatment of mushrooms - cleaning of hard scales on the cap and on the leg.
Similar views
The motley umbrella refers to edible fungi that do not contain any unsafe substances for the human body.
However, this mushroom has a lot of poisonous twins, which have some similarities in appearance, and their use can most negatively affect human health.
- Chlorophyllum lead and slag. The main place of growth of this very poisonous species of mushrooms is North America. The main difference from the variegated umbrella is the more modest size of the representatives of this species, the characteristic olive color of the spore powder, and the fact that when pressed on the pulp of the fungus, the latter acquires a rich brown tint. The danger of this type of fungus for humans is the presence in its pulp of a large number of harmful toxins.Also, this fungus does not have a pronounced aroma inherent in a colorful umbrella.
- Chlorophytllum is dark brown. This type of fungus, as mentioned above, also differs from the umbrella in smaller sizes, as well as in the reddening flesh of the fruit body. In our latitudes, this type of mushroom practically does not occur. Nevertheless, there are cases when even experienced mushroom pickers, having found it, perceived it as an umbrella, which is explained by the almost identical external similarity. The main difference, according to which, in fact, it is possible to determine the fungus that is poisonous and dangerous to humans is that when the fruit body breaks, the flesh changes color very quickly - acquiring a characteristic reddish tint.
Also, the motley umbrella has quite harmless for humans edible brethren.
An ordinary umbrella mushroom differs from its motley relative in more graceful forms. Also, the main difference between these species can be attributed to the very modest size of the representatives of the species (leg length up to 100 mm, the diameter of the cap does not exceed 150 mm).
A reddening umbrella is a mushroom that has a small size with reddening pulp and a peculiar "shaggy" surface of the cap (the maximum length of the stem is 150 mm, the cap diameter reaches 200 mm).
Benefit and harm
Danger umbrella motley is only for those people who have individual intolerance, we note that such cases are very, very rare.
It is important to take into account the fact that this type of mushroom is valuable not only for its taste and nutritional characteristics. The umbrella contains a fairly large number of useful and active substances that are beneficial to the human body. Due to this motley umbrella is used to treat many ailments through traditional medicine. Note that in some Asian countries, this type of mushroom has long earned the trust of not only healers and physicians, but also many pharmaceutical companies.
The use of this type of mushrooms will be very useful for people suffering from diabetes. A moderate amount of food eaten will help to significantly reduce insulin dependence, as well as normalize the work of such an organ as the thyroid gland.
These mushrooms can be an excellent solution for those people who decide to reduce body weight, and cleanse your body of harmful toxins and toxins.Even a one-time use of food made from a colorful umbrella will help activate the metabolic processes in the body. Accordingly, in order to get rid of excess weight, one use of mushrooms will be small. The best solution is to include a motley umbrella in the diet, which will help to achieve the desired effect - to lose weight and improve overall health.
Such a fungus as a motley umbrella copes well with such tasks as tissue regeneration, therefore it is often recommended to be used by people who have undergone surgery, which makes wounds heal much faster. Also, this property is used to slow down changes caused by age-related aging of tissues.
The extract from the fungus has recently been used as an effective pretumor agent used as one of the components of complex therapy.
Many of our compatriots use a motley-colored mushroom umbrella to prepare tasty and healthy preparations for the winter. Mushrooms perfectly preserve their taste and nutritional value in both brine and marinade.
To prepare these mushrooms, it is enough to clean the fruit body from flakes, then perform heat treatment - boil for 20-30 minutes.
Video: colorful umbrella (Macrolepiota procera)
To send