Oak breast (Lactarius zonarius) photo and description

Oak breast (Lactarius zonarius)

• Ginger oak

Oak breast, outwardly very similar to all other milk mushrooms and differs from them only in a slightly reddish or yellowish-orange, or orange-brick color of its fruiting body. And for its generic feature to grow in bushes, heaps or piles (“mushrooms”) in the oak forests of broad-leaved forests, and that very name came about. Oak mushroom, as well as aspen and poplar mushrooms – the main competitor of black mushrooms and also loses to him in only one thing – in the constant presence of dirt on the surface of his hat due to the fact that the maturation of oak mushrooms, as well as aspen and poplar mushrooms, occurs , as a rule, under the ground and on the surface, it is already shown in its mature form. According to food and consumer indicators, oak mushrooms (like aspen and poplar mushrooms) belong to conditionally edible mushrooms of the second category. It is also considered conditionally edible due to the presence of bitter-bitter milky juice in its pulp, which can also be attributed to the merits of this kind of fungus because, due to its presence, oak mushrooms, like other mushrooms, rarely infect mushrooms. worms.

Oak milk mushrooms are found quite often, but in forests rich in broad-leaved tree species such as oak, beech and hornbeam. The main period of ripening and fruiting they have, approximately, in the very middle of summer and, closer to autumn, they get to the surface, where they continue to grow and bear fruit until at least the end of September – the beginning of October.

The oak mushroom belongs to agaric mushrooms, that is, the spore powder with which it reproduces is found in its plates. The oak mushroom plates themselves are very wide and frequent, whitish-pinkish or reddish-orange in color. Its cap is funnel-shaped, wide, concave inward, with a slightly felt edge, reddish or yellowish-orange-brick color. The leg is dense, even, narrowed downwards and hollow inside, off-white or pinkish in color. Its flesh is dense, whitish or cream in color. The milky juice is very sharp in taste, white in color and on the cut, when in contact with air, it does not change it. Oak milk mushrooms are eaten only in a salty form, after their preliminary and thorough soaking in cold water to remove a bitter aftertaste from them. It should not be forgotten that oak mushrooms, just like all other mushrooms, are never dried.