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Amanita ovoid is classified as conditionally edible, although recently its harmlessness has been questioned. It looks like several varieties of other mushrooms at once. It is confused with both edible and deadly poisonous species. To collect egg-shaped fly agaric, you need to know exactly what they look like.
Description of ovoid fly agaric
Latin name Amanita ovoidea. The prefix “ovoid” mushroom received for the shape of young fruiting bodies, completely hidden under the coverlet.
But in other regions of the Crimea, a giant talker is called white mountain, so confusion with the names and descriptions of mushrooms is possible. You should not buy such a white mountain from your hands. Everything that is white is collected for sale in the Crimea, including smelly fly agaric.
The size of the fruiting bodies often depends on the weather and nutritional value of the soil. The average height is usually 10-15 cm. The cap and stem are white, but other mushrooms have the same color. However, the color is also variable. There are also darker varieties.
The pulp is white, dense, does not darken on the break. The presence of a smell, most likely, depends on the sharpness of the mushroom picker’s sense of smell:
- barely distinguishable;
- slightly smells of the sea;
- mealy, unpleasant.
The smell may vary depending on where it grows. The taste is almost invisible.
Spores are white, but they appear only in ripe fruiting bodies, which in any case are no longer suitable for food.
Cap Description
The diameter of a mature mushroom is from 6 to 20 cm. The hat of an old fly agaric is flat in shape with a bulge where the leg is attached from below.
Since at the beginning of growth the fruiting body is completely under the cover, it seems that the cap is one with the stem, and together it has an ovoid shape. As it grows, the cover breaks. The upper part remains on the cap, and the lower part looks like a sepal of flowers, from which the stem grows.
As it grows, the hat takes on a rounded shape. At the edges, a fringe is clearly visible, left over from a torn volva (spread). This is the main difference between the ovoid and its dangerous relatives. The skin can be white, off-white or pale beige. The hat is dry and shiny. A young fly agaric has rare white flakes on it. The latter quickly disappear as the fruiting body of the ovoid fly agaric grows.
Hymenophore in young mushrooms is white. The plates are wide, free, the edges are pubescent. In old hymenophores, it acquires a beige tint.
In aging mushrooms, the cap fully unfolds into a “saucer” with a bulge in the middle and may acquire a brownish tint. The remains of the Volvo at the edges almost disappear.
Description of the leg
Height reaches 10-15 cm and 3-5 cm in diameter. The consistency of the leg is dense, without voids inside. The shape is club-shaped: at the bottom it is more massive, at the top it becomes thinner. In the lower part are the remains of the bedspread. The color is white, yellowish or cream. The surface is not smooth. It is covered with a flaky mealy coating.
Volvo Description
Volvo is large, semi-free, bag-shaped. The edge is lobed or wavy. Color is usually in several options:
- whitish;
- yellowish;
- with a brown tint;
- light orange.
The ring on the leg is membranous, hanging down, wide. White color. The remains of the bedspread on the hat look like warty rare white flakes. They disappear quickly with age. On the edges of the cap there is a fringe of fibrous remains of the bedspread.
Where and how to grow
The distribution area of the fungus on the Eurasian continent is quite large. It is most commonly found in the Mediterranean. Due to the similarity of the climate, the egg-shaped fly agaric is one of the most common mushrooms in the Crimea. It is found in the British Isles, in Central Europe, Transcaucasia, Western Siberia, Japan.
Amanita ovoid prefers limestone soils. For this reason, it is one of the most common mushrooms in the Crimean mountains, composed of sedimentary limestone rocks. In too dry steppe, this species does not grow, preferring more humid and shady deciduous and coniferous forests. But in the Crimea, ovoid is also found in the Bakhchisarai region.
Prefers to grow in forests of beech trees: chestnut, beech, oak.
True, there are no chestnut forests in the Crimea. The vegetative period falls on August-September.
Is the mushroom edible or not?
Conditionally edible mushrooms can be eaten, but after some preparatory actions. However, in the egg-shaped fly agaric, these procedures are minimized.
This mushroom does not need to be pre-soaked in several waters, just boil and drain the liquid. After that, you can cook any dish from fly agaric.
When harvesting for the winter, fresh egg-shaped fly agarics are dried or frozen. For pickling, they are first boiled.
In winter, dried fly agarics are first soaked in water, and then boiled in the same way as fresh ones. Cooking frozen ones differs only in that they must not be soaked, but thawed.
But the outcome of the poisoning is unknown, and the type of mushrooms, most likely, was recorded from the words of the victims. In the same area, along with the ovoid, other deadly poisonous species can grow.
How to cook ovoid fly agaric
After boiling with egg-shaped fly agaric, you can cook the same dishes as with other mushrooms:
- sandwich or hot sandwich;
- salad;
- second courses;
- soup.
The main requirement for cooking is pre-boiling.
Sandwiches
To make sandwiches, boiled fly agarics are fried in sunflower oil. Add onion, salt and pepper to taste. Fried mushrooms are mixed with finely chopped boiled egg, parsley and chopped nuts are added. Bread is smeared with butter and the resulting mass is spread on it.
For hot sandwiches, a plate of melting cheese is placed on top of the resulting structure and a plate is placed in the microwave / oven. After melting the cheese, the sandwich is ready to eat.
Roast chicken
Roast chicken is more difficult to prepare. From the dishes you will need a pot, a saucepan for boiling mushrooms and a frying pan. From the products you will need:
- 12 egg-shaped fly agarics;
- 1 chicken breast;
- 1 carrots;
- 5 medium sized potatoes;
- 1 bulb;
- 50 g of 20% sour cream;
- 5 Art. l. vegetable oils;
- bunch of parsley;
- salt and pepper to taste.
Mushrooms are checked for spoilage and worms and washed. Cut into 4 parts, put in cold water and bring to a strong boil. Another bubbling broth is drained. But there is no need to start all over again. The second time fly agarics are poured with hot water. Simmer for 30 minutes or more until all the pieces have sunk to the bottom of the pot. Drain into a colander to drain excess liquid. While the mushrooms are cooling, you can do the chicken breast.
The fillet is cut into thin strips and fried in a pan until golden brown. Transfer to a pot.
Mushrooms are fried in vegetable oil until excess water evaporates. The onion cut into rings is added to the fly agaric and fried until it softens. Everything is transferred to the meat.
Peeled potatoes are cut into several pieces. Carrots are chopped into strips or rubbed on a coarse grater. Root vegetables are fried in a pan with a small amount of oil for 5 minutes.
Vegetables are also laid out in a pot, sour cream, pepper and salt are added. Stew in a preheated oven until the potatoes are ready. This will take about 45 minutes.
Salad with seafood and fly agaric
This salad is not difficult to prepare, but not all ingredients may be at hand in a provincial town. For the salad you will need:
- mussels;
- fly agaric;
- celery root;
- sweet potato tuber;
- soy sauce or mayonnaise.
Mussels are baked in the oven for 5 minutes. Amanitas are boiled separately, drained, cooled and chopped in layers. Cut into thin strips one medium sweet potato tuber and celery salad root. An almost ready dish is seasoned with mayonnaise or sauce and mixed well.
Twins and their differences
Cases of poisoning by the egg-shaped fly agaric may be due to the fact that this species has only two edible twins: young champignons and a puffball. You can confuse only fruiting bodies, in which the cover has not yet torn. If you cut the champignon, you will see its main difference from the egg-shaped fly agaric – a brown hymenophore. The raincoat does not have any plates at all. As soon as the fly agaric’s cover is torn, it is no longer possible to confuse it with edible twins.
The situation is worse with other, poisonous, species of amanites. The egg-shaped fly agaric growing in the Crimea, neither in the photo nor in the forest, practically does not differ from poisonous twins. In addition to the ovoid, in the Crimean forest you can find:
- spring toadstool;
- white grebe;
- pale grebe;
- toadstool;
- amanita steppe.
All these species grow in the same place as the ovoid. Only the steppe fly agaric differs in that it is found in the steppe and tolerates summer drought well.
Spring grebe (Amanitaverna)
Name synonyms: spring fly agaric, white fly agaric. Growth begins in the spring. The season lasts until the end of summer. Prefers to grow in the same places as the ovoid.
The fruit body is more “graceful build”. The hat usually reaches a diameter of no more than 10 cm. There are no tattered bedspreads on the edges of the hat.
The leg is 7-12 cm high and thinner (0,7-2,5 cm) than that of the ovoid. At the top is a wide white ring with fuzzy stripes. Volvo at the base fits snugly to the leg, but is not fused with it.
The pulp is almost odorless, with an unpleasant taste.
White Grebe (Amanitavirosa)
She’s a smelly fly agaric. It is named so not in vain. This fungus has an unpleasant smell of chlorine. The cap diameter is up to 11 cm. The color is white or off-white. Dry skin is shiny, sticky, slimy.
The leg is high, like that of an ovoid. But the diameter is not more than 2 cm. Like the ovoid, the leg is covered with a flocculent coating. Tuberous at the base. The membranous ring quickly disappears, but fibrous belts or scraps may remain.
Volvo up to 3 cm wide, bag-shaped or cup-shaped. Free. Often buried in the soil.
Most common in the north of the temperate zone of Eurasia. It is also found in the Crimea. Season from June to October. In time, this period completely overlaps the season in the egg-shaped fly agaric.
Pale grebe (Amanitaphalloides)
It may seem that the pale toadstool does not look like an egg-shaped fly agaric. But she has a very wide variation in color: from almost white to dirty green. The clarified variation can be confused with the edible fly agaric.
The sizes of the pale grebe and the egg-shaped fly agaric are the same. The latter is distinguished by a characteristic wide fringed ring on the stem. With age, it disappears, but old mushrooms acquire an unpleasant sweetish smell, which is almost invisible in young fruiting bodies.
The season for the pale grebe falls at the end of summer-autumn.
Yellow pale grebe (Amanitacitrina)
Other names:
- toadstool fungus;
- lemon fly agaric;
- yellow-green fly agaric.
The size of the caps and legs of the yellow toadstool is almost completely identical to the ovoid. The skin color of the cap can be almost white. Because of this, the yellow toadstool is confused with the egg-shaped fly agaric.
The ring on the leg is wide, smooth, sagging. Yellow color. Volva adhering to the base. The color varies from brownish to yellow-brown. In young mushrooms, it can be almost white. The pulp has a characteristic smell of raw potatoes and an unpleasant taste.
The yellow grebe grows in forests of any type up to an altitude of 1400 m above sea level. Season from mid-August to end of October. The peak of vegetation falls on September.
Steppe amanita (Amanitavitadinii)
The second name is “fly agaric Vittadini”. Some sources classify it as poisonous, others as conditionally edible. Although the sizes of the egg-shaped and steppe fly agaric are the same, it is still difficult to confuse them.
The leg of the steppe retains scalyness until adulthood. The cap is bumpy and the tubercles do not disappear, as happens with the scales on the cap of the ovoid.
The double ring on the leg is warty, wide, with a webbed edge.
It grows in the steppe zone and mixed forests. Found in artificial plantations. Season from April to October.
What is dangerous ovoid fly agaric
The ovoid fly agaric itself can only cause mild nausea if not cooked properly. The main danger is the similarity of the ovoid with poisonous amanite.
Symptoms of poisoning, first aid
Mushroom poisoning is dangerous because it manifests itself only a few hours after a meal. In case of poisoning with a pale toadstool, the first symptoms appear after 6-24 hours. In case of poisoning by other amanite, symptoms may appear even after 3 days.
During this time, the poison has time to absorb and begin its destructive work. Signs of poisoning:
- vomiting;
- abdominal pain;
- diarrhea.
After 2 days, everything goes away, but after another day, the functions of the liver and kidneys will be completely impaired. And it’s already irreversible. Therefore, when such symptoms appear, it is worth making sure that there were no mushrooms in the diet in the last 3 days.
In case of poisoning with muscarine, which contains amanite, symptoms appear 30-120 minutes after ingestion:
- strong perspiration;
- increased salivation;
- impaired vision;
- constriction of the pupils;
- diarrhea;
- vomiting;
- bradycardia.
In severe poisoning, pulmonary edema and respiratory failure develop, after which collapse occurs.
First aid consists in washing the gastrointestinal tract and calling an ambulance. Antidotes to muscarine are anticholinergics, one of which is atropine.
In case of poisoning with a pale toadstool, anticholinergics do not work. Other antidotes are needed to neutralize its poison.
In any case, if symptoms of poisoning appear, you should consult a doctor and as soon as possible. When poisoned with a pale toadstool, the internal organs will be damaged, but there is a chance to survive.
Conclusion
Amanita ovoid is undesirable to collect for people with little experience. Due to the similarity of this fungus with other types of amanite, you can get serious poisoning. At the same time, the egg-shaped fly agaric is considered quite valuable and is harvested for the winter. But not everyone likes the specific taste of the mushroom, even if it is barely noticeable.