Horn-shaped calocera: description and photo

Horn-shaped calocera is a conditionally edible specimen of the Dacrimycete family. You can recognize the species by its bright color and horn-like shape. The fungus is widespread everywhere, prefers rotten hardwood. Begins fruiting from the first warm days. To recognize this representative of the forest kingdom, you need to read the description, view photos and videos.

What do horn-shaped calocera look like?

This forest dweller is difficult to confuse with other representatives of the mushroom kingdom. Since the species has a horn-shaped, club-shaped shape or some resemblance to miniature petals. Very often fruiting bodies grow together, forming ribbed ribbons. The mushroom is small in size, reaches no more than 2 cm in height and 3 mm in thickness.

The surface of young specimens is shiny, painted in a bright orange color, with age the color changes to a dirty orange. The pulp is elastic, gelatinous, has no taste and smell. A hymenophore is located over the entire surface of the fruiting body. Reproduction occurs in miniature, colorless spores, which are in a snow-white powder.

Where do horn-shaped calocerae grow?

Calocera is distributed throughout Our Country. Prefers to grow in moist, shady places, on stumps and damaged deciduous trees, rarely found in coniferous forests. Mushrooms grow in large families, from early spring until the first frost.

Is it possible to eat horn-shaped calocera

This specimen belongs to the 4th group of edibility. But due to the lack of taste and smell in cooking, it is used extremely rarely. Due to its beautiful color, many cooks use it after a long boil as a decoration for cold and meat dishes.

In forests, you can find edible and inedible twins:

1. Dacrimyces vanishing – an inedible representative of the mushroom kingdom. The young fruiting body has an irregular shape of a drop or a ball. During growth, the surface is colored orange-red, then the color changes to bright lemon. In dry weather, the fungus dries up. The gelatinous pulp, when mechanically damaged, releases bright red juice.

   

2. deer horns – a conditionally edible species that grows in small groups on rotten wood. You can recognize the mushroom by its bright yellow color and the branch-like shape of the fruiting body. It begins fruiting from July to the end of September. Despite the absence of taste and smell, many mushroom pickers use this species as food. They can be boiled, stewed, dried and fried.
   Important! Due to their bright color, European chefs boil deer horns and use them as decorations for cold dishes.

   

Conclusion

Horn-shaped calocera is a beautiful and bright forest inhabitant that occurs throughout the warm period in deciduous forests. Since the pulp does not have a mushroom taste and smell, this specimen is rarely eaten. In order not to confuse the species with inedible counterparts, experienced mushroom pickers recommend not to collect this species, but simply to admire it.