Popular mushrooms growing on trees

Various types of fungi often appear on tree trunks and stumps. Their living or dead wood becomes a nutrient substrate for representatives of various fungal species.

Some fungi are parasites. They live off the donor tree, gradually growing and destroying living tissues... Others, settling on dead wood, benefit nature: they process biological material, serve as food for birds and animals, and heal humans.

What mushrooms grow on trees?

Microscopic and cap representatives of the biological kingdom of fungi settle on living and dead trunks and dead wood.

Growths, mold, cup-like formations on the trunk or branches of a tree signal that mushrooms have settled on it... Among them are parasites and symbiotes. The former live off the donor tree, destroying the wood. Others create a symbiosis with a tree, receiving vital substances from it and giving the necessary ones to the tree.

The appearance of fungi on garden trees indicates poor maintenance of garden plantings. In such cases, measures must be taken to save fruit plantations.

Woodland mushrooms, of course, destroy trees. But many of them are edible, useful for human and animal health, and can be used for household needs.

The most famous of the tree fungi infecting the garden:

• tinder fungi and their predecessors - blue-green algae on the north-western side of the trunk, the reason is thickening, poor lighting;
• false tinder, "Lives" on fruit trees, manifested by white rot of the core; signs of damage to stone fruits - dark streaks, dark gray and brown growths on the trunks;
• heartwood rot cherries, pears, and other fruits are caused by sulfur-yellow tinder fungus.

Some tinder fungi are edible at the stage of milk maturity, but require preliminary heat treatment.

In addition to them, edible polyporus are cellular and winter honey agaric, as well as:

• oyster mushrooms;
• reindeer rogues;
• the row is yellow-red;
• volvariella silky;
• winter mushroom.

One of the most beautiful representatives - coral blackberry, edible mushroom with an unusual, similar to very light coral, "cap".

Coral blackberry and its features

Among the conditionally edible mushrooms growing on fallen trunks, dead wood or stumps, the coral blackberry (in some sources - the blackberry) stands out for its extraordinary fabulous look. This species belongs to macromycetes, that is, to fungi with a large and well-developed aerial part.... It is also called neophyse, trellis blackberry, coral hericium and coral fungus.

What does it look like

The mushroom from the hericiaceae family got its name due to the structure of the fruiting body. Branched, irregular, with many short (10-20mm) cylindrical "tentacles", it really looks a lot like a sea coral bush. The brittle spines hanging from the main "branches" do not grow longer than 2 cm. Spores form on them. The coral blackberry is attached to the woody substrate with a short stem.

Milky or snow-white, pale cream or with a barely noticeable yellowish tinge, an openwork spreading mushroom is far visible in a darkened gloomy deciduous forest. Ripening, gericium darkens, becomes sandy beige or brown... When the air humidity rises, it becomes transparent.

On the cut, the flesh of the mushroom is fleshy, very light, white or with a pale pink tinge. The smell is pleasant, mushroomy, slightly pungent. In late maturity, it is dark and tough. The dried "coral" turns brown.

Adult specimens - record holders reach in height and width 40 cm... The average size is 30, and in Siberian forests it is 15-25 cm in diameter.

Where and how it grows

It is relatively uncommon, but distribution area includes all Russian forests of the temperate climatic zone, the Far East and Siberia... It has long mastered the territories of China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Transcaucasia, Europe and North America.

Grows singly and in groups in deciduous forests. Closer to the north, it chooses fallen trunks and fallen trees of aspen and birch, to the south - linden, beech, oak, elm. It is rarely found in mixed and coniferous forests. It takes root on fallen trees, stumps and deadwood, in old hollows.

There are legends that in the Middle Ages the coral mushroom was not a rarity at all. But his unusual appearance scared off mushroom pickers, neophytes were called a damn washcloth and considered poisonous.

When ripe

Blackberry, like other mushrooms, is a perennial organism. But his the fruiting body ("hat") lives one season - from the second half of July to early October... At this time, the white "coral" is found by mushroom pickers.

Similar species

Light branchy "bushes" are unique, they cannot be confused with any other representative of the mushroom kingdom.

Other species known as blackberries:

• blackberry variegated (he is a hawk, chicken, kolchak, scaly and tiled blackberries);
• blackberry yellow (he is notched);
• blackberry comb (synonyms - grandfather or mushroom beard);
• alpine blackberry (or Alpine).

In appearance, it is most similar to Alpine Hericium, and in properties - with comb.

For Alpine blackberries, the substrate is fir, spruce, less often pine. This type of gericium is found in mountain forests, very rarely - on the plains.... Spore-bearing spines are arranged in bunches at the tips of overgrown branches.

The healing properties of blackberry coral

The medicinal benefits of this species of hericia are appreciated. Most of them are due to the presence in the composition of phosphorus, calcium, iron, plant proteins, polysaccharides and vitamins.

The most advanced in the study and application of the healing properties of the pharmacologists of Germany and China.

Healing mushroom is used in the treatment and prevention of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and the entire digestive system... Polysaccharides protect the ulcerated gastric mucosa from stomach acid and stimulate its healing. Stimulates blood flow to the digestive tract and peristalsis. It is a means of preventing cancer processes in the organs of the digestive and excretory systems. Fatty acids, phenols and five polysaccharides with antitumor activity contained in the mushroom act directly on cancer cells, the effect is comparable to chemotherapy.

The healing effect of blackberries on both malignant and benign formations has been proven. It blocks the development of cancer of the breast, lung, esophagus, liver, stomach, is effective in the treatment of pancreatic oncology.It is indicated for varieties of prostate adenoma, cysts, fibromas, pituitary adenomas, myomas. In the course of clinical observations, the tumors resolved or significantly decreased in size. In complex anticancer therapy, it reduces the negative effects of treatment.

Improves the functioning of the respiratory system - bronchi and lungs. Blackberry has a beneficial effect on the activation of hematopoiesis... The positive effect of mushroom preparations on the nervous system has been proven, in particular, for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease.

Extracts are used in the fight against diseases of a bacterial, fungal and viral nature.

In folk medicine, tinctures and decoctions are used as antidepressants.... Used for insomnia and neurasthenia. It is useful for curing impotence, improving metabolic processes and slowing down the aging of the body.

How is mushroom eaten?

Interesting unique properties of coral blackberry are used in cooking. Gourmets appreciate the rare mushroom for its good culinary qualities., an interesting type of ready-made dish and beneficial properties confirmed by scientific research.

Coral Hericium is considered conditionally edible.: in cooking, young specimens are used after mandatory preliminary processing. As they mature, these mushrooms begin to taste bitter.

Despite the fact that the species is in the Red Book, in many regions mushroom pickers often find it, harvest it, share cooking recipes and taste sensations. In the national cuisines of other countries, blackberry dishes are also popular with connoisseurs.

Blackberries are stewed, fried, boiled, cooked in batter, added to fillings... They are harvested for the future by drying, salting or pickling. Dried is used whole or ground into powder.

Blackberries add a delicate aroma to dishes. The taste is bright, according to other sources - delicate and very pleasant, with a nutty flavor. When boiled, it resembles the taste of shrimp or squid in taste and structure.

Foodies share how they cook coral mushroom:

• Hericium is fried with spices in butter, add various spices and vegetable side dishes;
• make soup, as well as from other mushrooms;
• fried in a large amount of vegetable oil;
• added to saladslike other mushrooms.

Coral blackberry is a beautiful creation of nature. The mushroom has good taste and high healing properties.... In recent decades, the growing area has expanded, as has the frequency of detection of blackberries. Moreover, in Russia, the species is under state protection. The task of connoisseurs is to preserve the unique coral mushroom for future generations.