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The tuberous tinder fungus is a conditionally edible tubular fungus of the Polypore family, the genus Polyporus. Refers to saprophytes.
Description of tuberous tinder fungus
In the forest you can find many different mushrooms. To distinguish the tuberous tinder fungus, it is important to study its structure and features.
Mushroom grows on rotten wood
Cap Description
The color is yellowish reddish. Size – from 5 to 15 cm in diameter, sometimes up to 20 cm. The shape of the cap is round, slightly depressed in the middle. Its surface is strewn with small, brownish, tightly pressed scales, which cover the middle especially densely and form a convex symmetrical pattern. This pattern is not particularly noticeable in older mushrooms.
The pulp of tuberous tinder fungus has a pleasant smell and unexpressed taste. It is whitish in color, rubbery, elastic. When it rains it becomes watery.
The spore-bearing tubular layer is descending, whitish or grayish, with a radial pattern. The pores are quite large, infrequent, elongated. The powder is white.
Hats have a characteristic scaly pattern.
Description of the leg
The height of the leg is up to 7 cm, sometimes it reaches 10 cm, the diameter is 1,5 cm. The shape is cylindrical, expanded at the bottom, often curved, attached to the hat in the center. It is solid, fibrous, dense, hard. Its surface is reddish or brown.
This tinder fungus has a central location
Where and how to grow
Trutovik tuberous is found throughout the European part of Our Country. Settles on acidic soils in mixed or deciduous forests, where there are aspens and lindens. Grows on weak or dead wood, sometimes seen on woody substrate.
Fruiting time begins in late spring, continues throughout the summer and ends approximately in mid-September.
Is the mushroom edible or not?
Trutovik tuberous refers to conditionally edible. It is not used for food due to low taste. Some mushroom pickers prepare aromatic seasonings for first and second courses from it. To do this, it is dried, then ground in a coffee grinder into powder. The taste is unusual, delicate.
Twins and their differences
The main difference between the tuberous tinder fungus is huge spores. There are two more signs: relatively small fruiting bodies and a central leg.
Similar can be attributed to 2 types.
Polypore scaly. Its main difference is large size, thick flesh, small tubules in the spore-bearing layer. The cap is very fleshy, leathery, yellowish, fan-shaped, with a thin edge, on its surface there are dark brown scales that form a symmetrical pattern in the form of circles. At first it is reniform, then it becomes prostrate. The pulp is dense, juicy, with a pleasant aroma, woody in old mushrooms. Its diameter is from 10 to 40 cm. The pores of the tubules are large and angular. The leg is lateral, sometimes eccentric, thick, short, covered with brown scales, darker towards the root, light and reticulate above. In young specimens, its flesh is white, soft, in mature ones it is cork. Grows on weak and living trees singly or in groups. Prefers elms. It occurs in broad-leaved forests of the southern regions and parks; it does not come across in the middle lane. The fruiting period is from late spring to August. The mushroom is conditionally edible, belongs to the fourth category.
The scaly tinder fungus is large in size
Polypore is changeable. This fungus, unlike the tuberous tinder fungus, has a uniform color of the cap, there are no scales that create a symmetrical pattern. Fruiting bodies are small – no more than 5 cm. They develop on thin fallen branches. In a young specimen, the edge of the cap is tucked up, as it grows, it unfolds. In the middle, a rather deep funnel persists throughout life. The surface is smooth, yellow-brown or ocher. In the old, it fades, becomes fibrous. The tubules are very small, light ocher in color, run down to the stem. The pulp is thin, leathery, elastic, with a pleasant smell. The stem is central, velvety, dense, fibrous, straight, slightly widened at the cap, the surface is dark brown or black. It is quite long and thin (height – up to 7 cm, thickness – 8 mm). It grows in different forests on stumps and remains of deciduous trees, most often beeches. Fruiting time is from July to October. Refers to inedible.
Features of the variable tinder fungus – dark leg and small size
Conclusion
It is almost impossible to meet a mature tuberous tinder fungus whole, intact. The fact is that at the beginning of development it is affected by pests, it quickly becomes unusable.