Elm oyster mushroom (hypsizygus ulmarius)

Why are oyster mushrooms useful?

Oyster mushrooms have unique properties - a unique pantry with a set of mineral salts and other essential substances necessary for a person.
They contain a complex of vitamins: A, C, D, E, B1, B2, B6, B12, as well as 18 amino acids necessary for humans.

Also, the beneficial properties of oyster mushrooms are due to the high content of amylase and lipase enzymes, which promote the breakdown of fats, fiber and glycogen.
They contain both essential unsaturated ester acids and a number of biologically active substances that help reduce cholesterol and have anti-sclerotic effects.

Oyster mushrooms are very useful for the human body, as they are an excellent effective remedy for the treatment of stomach diseases. To do this, take freshly squeezed mushroom juice on an empty stomach. In this case, gastritis and ulcers can be cured. The useful properties of oyster mushrooms also include the following:

they improve intestinal motility;
used to heal wounds and treat ulcers;
have hemostatic, emollient and enveloping properties;
promote the removal of toxins, poisons, toxins;
are a sorbent;
are an important component of the anti-cholesterol diet, help to lower blood fats, which is very important for the heart vessels and blood circulation;
oyster mushroom infusion is used for neuroses, for this, finely chopped fresh mushrooms in the amount of 3 tablespoons are poured with half a liter of red wine, for example, Cahors, and insisted for a week, the resulting infusion is drunk 2 tablespoons before bedtime;
contain compounds with antioxidant activity, as a result, the aging process of the body is reduced; contain substances that promote the elimination of cholesterol from the body and reduce the risk of atherosclerosis;
the inclusion of oyster mushrooms in the diet significantly reduces the likelihood of cancer;
hold promise in the treatment of tropical malaria.
The benefit of oyster mushrooms for humans is also that they have high antibacterial activity.

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Taste and color

This mushroom is not well known in our country, its taste is rather average. In order to cook, boil for 15 to 20 minutes. It is allowed to use fresh, as an addition to the second course, you can salt, pickle. The legs have fiber-rubber pulp. Excellent combination with meat and fish dishes, gets excellent taste when fried in butter. It has excellent medicinal properties, contains the optimal amount of iron, copper, potassium, Vitamins B2, D, pantothenic acid. Due to the fact that it contains a large amount of fiber, it can be used in diets, improving metabolism. Helps in the treatment of anemia, stabilizes blood pressure, treats asthma and diabetes, stabilizes the cardiovascular system. This mushroom will not only increase the tone of the body, but also create a barrier against viral, bactericidal, fungal and carcinogenic effects by increasing the function of the immune system.

Cooking applications

Lyophyllum elm does not have a high taste, therefore it is not very popular with gourmets. It can be consumed after any type of heat treatment and harvested for future use by drying, salting and pickling. For all mushrooms of this type, there is a general cooking rule: after you have thoroughly cleaned and washed the mushrooms from dust and debris, they must be boiled in salted water for at least 20 minutes.

Julien

Products:

• 500 g of chicken meat
• 2 onions,
• 400 g of mushrooms,
• 150-200 g of hard cheese,
• spices.

In addition, for the sauce we need:

• 50 g butter
• 2 eggs, 2 tbsp. tablespoons of flour
• 2 glasses of milk
• salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:

First of all, you need to boil the meat with the addition of salt and bay leaves, cool. Chop the onions and simmer in butter until golden brown. Put the onion in a separate container, and put the mushrooms cut into slices in a frying pan and fry them until tender. For the sauce in a saucepan, saute the flour with butter, pour the milk here and bring the mixture to the thickness of sour cream. After obtaining the desired consistency, remove the sauce from the heat, add the egg, salt and pepper to it. You can add a teaspoon of ground nutmeg if desired.

In a deep bowl, mix the chopped fillet, fried onions and mushrooms, and the sauce. Put the resulting mixture in special molds - cocotte makers, sprinkle with grated cheese on top, and bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 180 degrees. Serve immediately after cooking.

Mushroom salad

Products:

• 300 g of mushrooms,
• 2 boiled eggs
• 200 g chicken fillet,
• carrot,
• bulb,
• a jar of canned corn,
• vegetable oil,
• mayonnaise,
• salt and pepper.

Preparation:

Finely chop the onion, chop the carrots on a grater. Fry vegetables in oil until tender. Add pre-peeled and boiled mushrooms to them and simmer until the resulting juice completely evaporates. Remove the mixture from heat and cool. Cut the boiled fillet into small cubes, do the same with chicken eggs. In a salad bowl, mix eggs, fillets, mushrooms with vegetables and canned corn, salt and season with mayonnaise. Before serving, it is advisable to hold the salad in the refrigerator for one and a half or two hours so that the ingredients are well saturated with the sauce.

Mushroom porridge from a multicooker

Products:

• 2/3 cup of rice, buckwheat and pearl barley,
• 4 glasses of water
• 500 g of mushrooms
• 1-2 heads of onions,
• sunflower oil,
• salt to taste.

Preparation:

Fry chopped onions and mushrooms in vegetable oil in the "Fry" mode, set aside. Pour pearl barley previously soaked for two hours into the multicooker bowl. Put the washed rice on top of it. The next layer is buckwheat. Pour cereals with water and turn on the "Milk porridge" or "Braising" mode (depending on the model of the device) for an hour. After that, the porridge must be mixed with mushrooms and can be served. This very filling and healthy dish is suitable for those who are fasting.

Oyster mushrooms - photo

In our country, all false oyster mushrooms are not poisonous, but they belong to the class of inedible mushrooms due to their excessive bitterness.

The only poisonous counterpart of oyster mushrooms grows in Australia, Tasmania, and there is information that it was met in India as well. This is Omphalotusnidiformis (Berk.) Or ghost mushroom. It also grows on trees and is very similar to oyster oyster mushroom in its appearance.

Its main feature is considered to be glow in the dark. These bioluminescent qualities are inherent in young growth, and during aging, these properties disappear in the fungus.

Oyster mushrooms - photo

What kind of inedible "twins" of oyster mushrooms grow here? There are only two such mushrooms. And they can hardly be called "twins" of oyster mushrooms, because they have a brighter color than their edible counterparts.

Orange oyster mushroom

Orange oyster mushroom absolutely justifies its name, as its color is very bright, saturated, red. The leg of such mushrooms is practically absent and they cling to the wood with a hat. A characteristic feature of these mushrooms is their smell. At a young age, they have a melon aroma, and old fruits exude the smell of spoiled cabbage.

Orange oyster mushrooms grow in large groups, widely scattered in a fan on the dead trees. Today they are actively used in landscape design, sowing spores on tree stumps and trunks.

How to tell oyster mushrooms from toadstools

Felt saw-leaf

This mushroom is found from June to October in deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests. Saw-leaves grow on dead wood in groups. Their hat is light, cream or beige and reaches a diameter of 8 cm.Unlike oyster oyster mushroom, the surface of the cap is matte and covered with scales.

They grow sideways to the tree, it seems like a hat, since their leg is very short, goes sideways and is almost imperceptible. The flesh of these mushrooms is quite dense and light. It has a rich mushroom aroma, but its taste is very bitter.

Felt saw-leaf

Now you know how to distinguish oyster mushrooms from toadstools, even if you decide to go on a trip to India or Australia.

Growing the fungus lyophyllum

To grow elm lyophyllum at home, you will need the following materials:

• mycelium (seeds) of the fungus;
• deciduous tree log. It is best to use for these purposes birch, elm, elm, aspen at least 4–4.5 years old, about 30 cm in diameter and up to half a meter long. Be sure to check that there are no branches on the log, signs of rot, and other flaws;
• drill.

If you plan to grow mushrooms in your summer cottage, then a favorable period for sowing will be from April to October. Indoors, while maintaining the temperature within 10-15 degrees, planting can be done all year round.

Logs are soaked in water for 2-3 days to obtain the required degree of moisture. In order to remove excess liquid, the wood must be kept for several days in a well-ventilated area after being removed from the water.

Drill small holes in prepared logs with a drill about one centimeter in diameter to a depth of 5–10 cm. They should be placed at a distance of 20 cm from each other in a checkerboard pattern.

With clean hands (or even better, wearing gloves), special sticks with ready-made mycelium should be placed in the holes. To avoid contamination with bacteria and mold, the logs should be packed in plastic bags. In addition, it will significantly accelerate the development and growth of the mycelium.

Logs treated in this way are located in a shaded place with good ventilation and the ability to maintain a temperature of 20-25 degrees. During the entire period of mycelium development, it is necessary to monitor the moisture content of the logs.

In 2–4 months, the mycelium will completely fill the substrate. And in six months it will already be possible to harvest. The fruiting period depends on the hardness of the wood used. On soft woods such as poplar, willow or birch, mushrooming can take about four years. Hard varieties - maple, mountain ash, beech - bear fruit for 6-7 years. With proper care, you will harvest an average of 3 to 6 kilograms of mushrooms from each log per year.

This is an unpretentious mushroom. Even in a rather dry summer, when other mushrooms practically do not grow, you can find single lyophillums or even large, beautiful clusters of this mushroom.

Types of edible oyster mushrooms

Also on the territory of our country you can find other types of edible oyster mushrooms, although they grow more locally in the regions.

• Lemon or elm oyster mushroom... This type of oyster mushroom is common in the Far East and Siberia. This type of mushroom got its name because of its bright yellow color. They grow preferentially on elms - Far Eastern elms.
• Oyster mushroom or plentiful oyster mushroom has a long curved cap, the edges of which are often wavy. The color of the mushroom is usually white, cream. It prefers to grow in deciduous forests in warm regions, as it is extremely sensitive in cold temperatures.
• Steppe or royal oyster mushroom (eringi) has a truly royal size. Their caps are much larger than other relatives and can reach 30 cm. Hence the second name of the mushroom. If you are wondering whether oyster mushroom grows on the ground, then in this case the answer will be yes. Eringi are the only mundane oyster mushrooms that parasitize on plant roots. These mushrooms are very valuable, because they contain so much protein and vitamins that they are often equated with dairy products in terms of their usefulness. You need to look for them in warm regions on wastelands and pastures with a predominance of umbrella plants. These are spring mushrooms, so in April-May you can go to the mushroom.
• Pulmonary or white oyster mushroom very similar to oyster, but more fragile and weightless. The color of these mushrooms is really white; in the center of the cap, a slight darkening may be noticeable. Plates pass under the head. These mushrooms grow well in whole groups on weak deciduous trees from May to October. However, their taste and aroma are very weak, close to neutral.
• Pink oyster mushroom grows in the Far East and in countries with tropical climates. She also has another name - Pink Flamingo. Indeed, the color of these oyster mushrooms is deep pink. The mushrooms are very beautiful, have a wavy, spreading cap with edges bent down, a short stem and are covered with plates below. In our country, such oyster mushrooms can be found on sale everywhere. They are very unpretentious and perfectly cultivated at home on straw. In nature, these mushrooms prefer to live on trees in groups.

What do oyster mushrooms look like and on what trees in nature?

On the trees, you can find 5 types of oyster mushrooms:

• pulmonary;
• elm;
• horn-shaped;
• pink;
• ordinary.

And only one species of it grows on earth. More precisely, in areas densely covered with bark and branches. Therefore, it seems as if the steppe oyster mushroom is right on the ground.

Pulmonary oyster mushroom

Oyster mushroom is also called whitish due to its color. It has a light, whitish-gray cap, which becomes yellowish as it “ages”. The diameter of the cap ranges from 4-8 to 15 cm. The mushroom has a grayish-white flesh and a faint but pleasant smell.

The fruit is located, as a rule, on rotting trees. And only occasionally can it be found on weakened living trunks or stumps. Under good conditions, mushrooms grow in large groups.

The mushroom in question does not differ in special taste or aroma. As experienced mushroom pickers say, it is a normal edible fruit.

Ilm oyster mushroom

For its bright yellow color, this mushroom is called elm or lemon oyster mushroom.

It is necessary to collect this variety of mushroom fruit in the period from the first decade of September to the third decade of October. It is necessary to search in deciduous or mixed forests, as well as in parks. Such mushrooms grow mainly on rotten stumps, in dead woods, on dead trunks or in the root areas of dead aspen, birch, elm.

The diameter of the mushroom cap is 5-10 cm. It is rather fleshy, convex at first, but becomes prostrate over time.

This type of oyster mushroom is very common in the Far East. But many housewives successfully grow them at home.

The mushroom got its second name "elm" oyster mushroom due to the peculiarities of its growth. Ilma is one of the species of elm that can be found in the Far East. It is on the bark of this tree that the considered species of oyster mushrooms grows.

Horn-shaped

The carob mushroom is also called abundant, and it prefers to breed in deciduous forests.

The mushroom is known in many countries, where it has different names. For example, in Ukraine it is called "gliva", and in some Caucasian states - "kagarchik". In Russia, this oyster mushroom got the name horn-shaped, obviously, for its shape.

The cap of such a mushroom can be not only horn-shaped, but also elongated or funnel-shaped. The edges are folded up.

The diameter of the mushroom cap reaches 3-12 cm. Its surface is smooth to the touch. The color of the oyster mushroom depends on its age, place and growing conditions. So, young fruiting bodies have an ocher-gray color. As they age, they acquire a light brown hue.

The mushroom has a short stem, the length of which varies from 2 to 6 cm, the diameter is 1.5 cm. The location of the mushroom stem is central or lateral, it has a wide base at the cap, but noticeably narrows downward. Its color is usually white, but sometimes has a sandy tint.

You can find mushrooms in the steppe and forest-steppe zones.They grow in Ukraine, Russia, China, Japan and the countries of the North Caucasus.

Please note: Elms are the preferred place for them, but it is also quite possible to find this type of oyster mushroom on the fallen trees of oaks and maples.

Pink oyster mushrooms

You can meet this type of oyster mushroom in the Far East of Russia. If you look at the photo, you can understand why the mushroom got its name.

It grows in small groups or in whole clusters. It has not very bright taste, the aroma is also not very pronounced.

Oyster mushroom

This is a rather large mushroom, the cap of which reaches 5-15 to 30 cm in diameter. It has an ear-shaped, shell-shaped or almost round shape. Juveniles have a convex cap with curled edges.

If the fruit grows in a humid environment, mycelial plaque forms on its surface. The color of the cap can change throughout the entire life cycle of the fetus. The shade of the fungus varies from dark gray to brownish, which is typical mainly for young fruits. Old oyster oyster mushrooms have an ash gray hat with a purple tint. Over time, it can fade, becoming whitish, yellowish or grayish.

The fungus is found on dead or live (less often), as well as deciduous trees. It can be found on aspen, mountain ash, willow, birch or oak. Less commonly, they grow in parks, gardens, coniferous or mixed forests. It is located on tree trunks high above the ground.

Interesting! This representative of the mushroom kingdom is used in folk medicine, since the content of high concentrations of lentinan in it helps to strengthen the immune system and provide an antitumor effect.

Description of lyophyllum elm

The diameter of the cap is 5-10 centimeters. The mushroom's cap is fleshy, at first its shape is convex with a bent edge, but as it grows it becomes prostrate. The color of the cap is whitish or light beige. The surface of the cap is covered with characteristic “watery” spots.

The plates are slightly lighter than the cap, they are often located, grow with a tooth. The pulp is firm, white. The pulp has a distinct "ordinary" smell. Spore white powder.

The length of the leg of elm lyophyllum ranges from 4 to 8 centimeters. Often the leg is curved, its thickness reaches 2 cm. The surface of the leg is fibrous. The color of the leg coincides with the cap, or it is lighter.

Distribution of elm oyster mushrooms

Elm lyophyllum bears fruit from August to September. These mushrooms grow on decaying wood, they can also settle on the soil, next to the roots of decaying trees. Like most representatives of this genus, elm lyophyllum can grow in large families.

What does elm oyster mushroom look like (with photo)

Elm lyophyllum, or elm oyster mushroom (Lyophyllum ulmarium) is extremely rare in winter. In fact, they are edible in the same way as common oyster mushrooms, but difficult to access due to their high location on tree trunks.

In winter, they most often remain on the bends of oak trees, often at a height of more than one and a half meters. Their external state depends on the moment at which frost caught them. If by the onset of freezing temperatures the weather was not wet, and oyster mushrooms reached their maximum growth, then they will remain so throughout the winter. In a thaw, they can wither, their edges can become even more wavy, and individual mushrooms from light brown become brown-black and completely wither.

These mushrooms are the largest among the edible winter mushrooms, with an average cap diameter of 10-20 cm.

Habitat: deciduous forests, parks, on stumps and trunks of oak, elm, elm and other deciduous trees, singly or in small groups.

The hat has a diameter of 5-15 cm, sometimes up to 20 cm, first convex, later extended.

As you can see in the photo, a distinctive feature of this type of oyster mushroom is an unusually beautiful color of the cap, like that of a sunflower - sunny, yellowish-brown, the surface of the cap is leathery, finely rough with water spots:

By winter, the surface of the cap becomes yellow-straw and the spots are no longer noticeable. When the mushroom grows on a tree, less often on a stump, it may have an asymmetrical leg arrangement. The edges of the cap are bent downwards, they are wavy. The color at the edges is slightly lighter than in the main part of the cap. In winter, the color changes to straw yellow. Older specimens darken, become black-brown or brown-brown.

The leg is 4-10 cm long, 7-15 mm thick, at first whitish-cream, later yellowish and light brown. The bases of the legs are often fused.

The pulp is soft, gray-lilac, with a mild taste, almost odorless.

The plates are wide, adherent, at first white, later buffy and light brown.

Variability: The color of the cap varies from yellow-golden to dark brown.

Similar species. In autumn, due to its large size and sunny color and watery spots, elm lyophyllum is difficult to confuse with other species. In autumn, this mushroom can be confused in appearance with a crowded row, which differs mainly in its habitat - on the ground, but not in trees. In winter, it does not have similar species.

Cooking methods: boil, fry, salt after preliminary boiling for 15-20 minutes.

Edible, 4th category.

See what the elm oyster mushroom looks like in these photos:

Where oyster mushrooms grow in the forest and at home

Oyster mushrooms are unpretentious mushrooms that adapt well to low temperatures, so they are better than other representatives of the mushroom kingdom for home cultivation.

Where can these fruiting bodies be found? They grow both in forests and in personal plots.

Experienced mushroom pickers claim that oyster mushrooms are more tasty and healthy than those that are grown at home or grow on trees near houses. It is those mushrooms that have been collected in the forest that are enriched with a huge amount of nutrients.

In essence, oyster mushrooms are considered a kind of tree parasites. They grow on trees and feed on their sap. Most of all, they "like" to be located on the bark of birches, but sometimes they can be found on other deciduous (rarely coniferous) trees.

If the oyster mushrooms growing by themselves are unpretentious, then they must be grown artificially in compliance with certain rules. In particular, for planting, it is necessary to use sawdust, fine shavings or paper. You can also use husk or straw for this purpose.

Lyophyllum shimeji

Synonyms:

• Tricholoma shimeji
• Lyophillum shimeji

Until recently, it was believed that Shimeji Lyophyllum (Lyophyllum shimeji) is distributed only in a limited area covering the pine forests of Japan and parts of the Far East. At the same time, there was a separate species, Lyophyllum fumosum (L. smoky gray), associated with forests, especially conifers, some sources even described it as a mycorrhizal forming agent with pine or spruce, outwardly very similar to L.decastes and L.shimeji. Recent molecular studies have shown that no such separate species exists, and all finds classified as L. fumosum are either L.decastes (more commonly) or L. shimeji (Lyophillum simeji) (less commonly, in pine forests). Thus, today (2018), the species L.fumosum has been abolished, and is considered a synonym for L.decastes, significantly expanding the habitat of the latter, almost to “anywhere”. Well, L.shimeji, as it turned out, grows not only in Japan and the Far East, but is widespread throughout the boreal zone from Scandinavia to Japan, and, in some places, is found in pine forests of the temperate climatic zone. It differs from L.decastes only in larger fruit bodies with thicker legs, growth in small aggregates or separately, binding to dry pine forests, and at the molecular level.

Description

Hat: 4 - 7 centimeters. In youth, it is convex, with a pronounced curved edge.With age it evens out, becomes slightly convex or practically spread, in the center of the cap, a pronounced wide, low tubercle is almost always preserved. The skin of the cap is slightly matte, smooth. The color range - in gray and brownish tones, from light grayish-brown to dirty gray, can acquire yellowish-gray shades. On the cap, dark hygrophane spots and radial stripes are often clearly distinguishable; sometimes, a small hygrophane pattern in the form of a "mesh" can be present.

Plates: frequent, narrow. Loose or slightly adherent. In young specimens, white, later darken to beige or grayish.

Leg: 3 - 5 centimeters in height and up to one and a half centimeters in diameter, cylindrical. White or grayish. The surface is smooth, can be silky or fibrous to the touch. In the growths formed by mushrooms, the legs are firmly attached to each other.

Ring, bedspread, volva: none.

Flesh: firm, white, slightly grayish in the stem, firm. Does not change color at cut and break.

Smell and taste: pleasant, slightly nutty taste.

Spore powder: white.
Spores: round to broadly ellipsoid. Smooth, colorless, hyaline or with fine-grained intracellular content, weakly amyloid. With a large spread in size, 5.2 - 7.4 x 5.0 - 6.5 microns.

Season and distribution

Active fruiting occurs in August - September.
Lyophyllum shimeji grows in small aggregates and groups, rarely singly.
Distributed throughout Eurasia from the Japanese archipelago to Scandinavia.

Similar types and differences from them

Crowded lyophyllum (Lyophyllum decastes) also grows in aggregates, but these aggregates consist of a much larger amount of fruit chalk. Prefers deciduous forests. The fruiting period is from July to October. Elm lyophyllum (Oyster mushroom, Hypsizygus ulmarius) is also considered very similar in appearance due to the presence of hygrophane rounded spots on the cap. In oyster mushrooms, fruiting bodies with a more elongated stem and the color of the cap are generally lighter than in Lyophillum simeji

However, these external differences are not so fundamental if we pay attention to the environment. Oyster mushroom does not grow on soil, it grows exclusively on dead wood of deciduous trees: on stumps and wood residues immersed in the soil

Other information about the mushroom

The specific name "Shimeji" comes from the Japanese name for the species Hon-shimeji or Hon-shimejitake. But in fact, in Japan under the name "Shimeji" one can find on sale not only Lyophyllum shimeji, but also, for example, another lyophillum actively cultivated there, elm.

Photo: Vyacheslav

How to grow mushrooms at home

Growing oyster mushrooms at home requires a careful approach. To do this, you need to know and strictly observe a certain technology, otherwise your efforts will not be crowned with success. But it is worth considering that such mushrooms feel best underground, therefore it is recommended to prepare a basement or cellar for their cultivation.

The soil

Like champignons, it is necessary to grow oyster mushrooms at home on a special substrate:

• dry straw;
• sunflower seed husks;
• sawdust made from wood of deciduous trees;
• corn stalks;
• reeds.

Advice! If one component is not enough for growing oyster mushrooms, you can mix several of them. The main condition is that the soil must be dry.

The selected material must be crushed. Fractions of raw materials should be about 0.4 cm. The substrate must be placed in a barrel, pour boiling water and wait until it swells. After that, remove it and let it dry completely.

Increasing the mass of mycelium

Mycelium can be purchased at a specialist store. To build up its mass, it is necessary to tamp it in dense layers on the prepared soil, apply the substrate again on top of it. But this time, its thickness should be twice as large, and be at least 15 cm.And again place the mycelium in a layer of 3 cm.

Such activities should be continued until the bag for building mycelium mass is completely filled. Next, it must be tied and placed vertically. Use a pre-sterilized nail to make holes.

Mushrooms will grow and gain weight only with strict adherence to the temperature regime. The optimum room temperature is considered to be 18-25 degrees. Spores begin to germinate as early as 3 days. At this time, the mycelium will turn white.

After that, the bag must be untied. Further, the process of growing oyster mushrooms will proceed independently. As a result, you can make 10 from one bag, and then even more.

Oyster mushrooms are mushrooms that can be found naturally in their growth, as well as grown on their own. In the second case, it is necessary to create optimal conditions for their growth, otherwise they will die very quickly.