Common flake (Pholiota squarrosa) photo and description

Common flake (Pholiota squarrosa)

• flake hairy
• Cheshuchatka Cheshuchataya
• Dry scale

Common flake grows from mid-July to early October (massively from late August to late September) in different forests on dead and living wood, on trunks, at the base around trunks, on the roots of deciduous (birch, aspen) and less often coniferous (spruce) trees , on stumps and near them, in bunches, colonies, not uncommon, annually

Young fruits have a spathe, which later tears, and its remnants may remain on the edges of the cap or form a ring on the stem.

It grows in Europe. North America and Japan, appearing in summer and autumn on roots, stumps and at the base of beech, apple, and spruce trunks. it low quality edible mushroom, since its flesh is tough, and it tastes bitter. Several related species are similar in color to common flake. In autumn, mushroom pickers often confuse common flake with autumn honey agaric, but honey agaric is not hard and large-scaly.

Common flake (Pholiota squarrosa) has hat 6-8 (sometimes up to 20) cm in diameter, at first hemispherical, then convex and convex-prostrate, with numerous protruding pointed, flat, lagging large scales of ocher-brown, ocher-brown color on a pale yellow or pale ocher background.

Leg 8-20 cm long and 1-3 cm in diameter, cylindrical, sometimes narrowed towards the base, dense, solid, one-colored with a cap, rusty-brown at the base, with a scaly ring, above it smooth, light, below – with numerous concentric lagging ocher – brown scales.

Records: frequent, thin, adherent or slightly descending, light, yellowish brownish, brownish brownish with age.

Disputes:

Spore powder ocher

Pulp:

Thick, fleshy, white or yellowish, according to the literature, reddish in the stem, without any special smell.

Video about the mushroom Scale ordinary:

Despite its attractive appearance, common flake has not been an edible mushroom for a long time.

Studies have not identified toxins in the fruiting bodies that directly affect the body. However, lectins were found that are not destroyed both in media with different acidity and during heat treatment, withstanding up to 100 ° C. Some lectins cause gastrointestinal disorders, others inhibit red blood cells in the human body.

Despite this, some people consume the mushroom without any visible negative effect, but for others, everything can turn out to be quite deplorable.

Very rarely, but still undoubtedly, the use of flake vulgaris with alcohol causes a coprinic (disulfiram-like) syndrome.

Koprin itself was not found in the fungus. But we emphasize once again that eating a mushroom is excessively risky!

Some populations of Ph. squarrosa may contain meconic acid, one of the components of opium.

The concentration of active substances in mushrooms is not constant. It varies depending on the season, climatic conditions and the place where the species grows. Intoxication is likely when a significant amount of raw or insufficiently thermally processed fruit is consumed.