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Autumn mushrooms have always been popular among mushroom pickers. After all, these fruiting bodies grow in large colonies, and a considerable crop of mushrooms can be harvested from one stump or a fallen tree trunk. In addition, mushrooms are considered very useful due to the content of phosphorus, iron, calcium, as well as various vitamins and trace elements. There are also autumn mushrooms, which are called royal mushrooms.
The royal mushrooms fully justify their name, widespread among the people. Hats of this species reach up to 20 cm in diameter, and grow more than 20 cm in height. In the scientific world, royal mushrooms are called golden flakes.
These autumn mushrooms do not grow in such large clusters as other species. Honey agaric royal or golden flake prefer “loneliness” or grow in small groups. This species is rare, but mushroom pickers, even in these cases, do not always collect them, considering them inedible. But I must say that the taste of scaly royal mushrooms practically does not differ from everyone’s favorite and popular autumn species.
Novice mushroom pickers ask: is the royal mushroom edible or not? To find out the answer to this question, let’s look at a photo and description of royal mushrooms.
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What royal mushrooms look like: photos and descriptions of mushrooms
Latin name: Pholiota aurivella.
Family: strophariaceae.
Sort by: foil or flake.
Synonyms: royal honey agaric, golden flake, sulfur-yellow flake, willow.
Edibility: edible mushroom.
Hat: the diameter of the cap is large, at a young age from 5 to 10 cm; in adult specimens, from 10 to 20 cm. The cap is broadly bell-shaped in shape, but changes with age to a flat-round shape. The color of the cap varies from rusty yellow to dirty gold. The entire surface of the cap is dotted with flaky scales of a reddish hue.
Leg: length from 6 to 12 cm, diameter from 1 to 2 cm. Dense, yellow-brown shade with brownish scales located on it. The stem is framed by a fibrous ring, but as the fungus grows, the ring disappears.
Records: wide and adnate to the leg with denticles. The color of the plates at a young age of the fungus is light straw. As they mature, the color becomes olive or brown.
Pulp: has a pleasant smell, whitish-yellow in color.
Application: mushrooms are very useful for people suffering from anemia. They contain a lot of magnesium and iron – substances that are involved in hematopoiesis. Eating honey agaric of autumn royal helps to make up for the lack of minerals in the human body and increases hemoglobin. In addition, this type of mushroom regulates the proper functioning of the thyroid gland.
Spread: often found in deciduous forests, as well as in coniferous forests of swampy areas throughout Our Country.
Photos of royal mushrooms will help novice mushroom pickers to distinguish this species from false mushrooms:
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Where do autumn royal mushrooms grow?
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It is worth noting that edible species of royal mushrooms grow on damaged tree trunks, old, long-cut stumps. They can also be found on the ground next to the roots of dead hardwoods and conifers. The fruiting of the golden or royal honey agarics begins in August and continues until the end of September. Residents of Primorsky Krai can pick these amazing mushrooms from mid-May to mid-September.
Where else do royal mushrooms grow, and which trees do they prefer the most? Usually this species of mushrooms settles on the trunks of deciduous trees, especially on alder or willow, sometimes chooses birch and birch stumps, less often – coniferous trees in wetlands. Look at the photos below showing what royal mushrooms look like on trees in the forest:
Sometimes even experienced mushroom pickers, due to the rare appearance of golden flakes, confuse them with false mushrooms that grow in the same territories. Therefore, we suggest that you carefully read the photos of edible and false royal mushrooms:
As already mentioned, flakes or royal mushrooms are edible mushrooms. However, before use, it must be boiled in salted water for 20-25 minutes. Since royal mushrooms have excellent taste, they are used in appetizers, salads, first and second courses. Flakes go especially well with fried or boiled potatoes. In addition, from these mushrooms, many housewives make preparations for the winter: pickled, salted, frozen and dried.
Sometimes mushrooms can be found in pine forests and spruce forests. What does the royal mushroom look like if you found it in a coniferous forest? Usually, scales collected in deciduous forests differ from those growing in coniferous ones. The first difference of mushrooms found in pine forests is the dark color of the cap and scales, and the second is a bitter taste. However, there is a lot of vitamin C, PP and E in royal mushrooms. In addition, there are only 100 calories per 22 g of flake, so the calorie content of this species is very low. That is why they are useful for vegetarians and those who follow a low-calorie diet. According to the content of phosphorus and calcium, royal mushrooms compete even with fish.
Experts ranked the royal mushrooms in the IV category of edibility. That is why in other countries they are not eaten and are not even collected, since this category belongs to inedible species abroad. However, in Our Country they are prepared in the same way as ordinary autumn mushrooms. They are pre-boiled in salted water and only then fried, stewed or boiled first courses. In addition, royal autumn mushrooms are used in other culinary recipes: they cook mushroom stew, julienne, make caviar, pastes, sauces, hodgepodges and mushroom fillings for pizzas and pies.
Hats of royal mushrooms, resembling prickly balls, are very good to pickle or salt. However, each mushroom must undergo primary processing: cleaning from scales and forest debris. The main taste of the golden flake is hidden in the hats. The legs after a long boil become hard and dry.
Although the golden flake is widespread in Our Country and well recognizable, it is not collected so often. Perhaps this is due to the fact that few people know this type of mushroom. However, true connoisseurs of mushroom delicacies put it on a par with autumn mushrooms and even mushrooms. We offer you to watch a video of collecting royal mushrooms in deciduous forests by lovers of “quiet hunting”:
How to distinguish royal mushrooms from false mushrooms (with photo)
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Often, royal mushrooms are called willows, since it is on willows that they are harvested. These mushrooms grow almost from mid-summer until frost. Inexperienced mushroom pickers may confuse an edible mushroom with an inedible moth. How to distinguish royal mushrooms from false inedible mushrooms? False honey agaric fire grows only on the ashes, as well as old fires, overgrown with grass and shrubs. It has a bright color, a bitter taste and an unpleasant smell. Although the pulp is juicy and dense, it is not eaten because of the smell. The fungus can pose a serious threat to human health. Therefore, we propose to compare photos of royal honey agaric and false:
There are several more royal species of mushrooms, which are considered conditionally edible.
For example, the flake is mucous, which is very similar to the royal golden flake. The caps of young mushrooms are bell-shaped, which becomes concave as the mushrooms grow, and the edges of the cap rise. If the weather is rainy, then the flesh becomes slimy and sticky, which was the name for the flake – slimy. The stem of this fungus eventually becomes hollow, and the ring on the stem disappears completely. Slimy flakes grow only on rotted wood from mid-August to early October.
Another false royal honey agaric – cinder flake, is considered inedible. The shape of the cap at a young age of the fungus is hemispherical, and in mature it becomes completely prostrate. The color of the hat is very bright – orange-brown, the edges are covered with fragments of the bedspread. The stalk of the scale, especially its lower part, is densely covered with brown fibers. The ring inherent in real mushrooms is not at all visible on the leg.
Conditionally edible is the common flake, which is similar to the royal mushrooms. Although it has healing properties, it still has one drawback – hallucinogenicity. You can eat it, but only after a long heat treatment. Boil this species for at least 40 minutes and only then eat. This type of mushroom is collected very rarely, usually only by those who know how to cook it. After all, experienced mushroom pickers know that it is strictly forbidden to use common flakes with alcohol. Opium contained in this form, in interaction with alcohol, can have unpredictable consequences for the body.To know how to distinguish royal mushrooms, we suggest looking at photos showing these differences:
Having familiarized yourself well with them, you can safely go to the forest for royal mushrooms. However, if you are still not sure of your knowledge, it is better not to take risks, but to collect only those fruiting bodies that are familiar to you.