How honey mushrooms grow on birches: photos, description of edible mushrooms and their false counterparts

These fruiting bodies grow in large groups on stumps, trees, or near shrubs. Honey mushrooms, generous for the harvest, have a delicate taste, aroma and are suitable for preparing a wide variety of dishes and preparations for the winter.

Usually honey agarics grow on birches, choosing diseased trees for themselves. However, these fungi can also be found on other trees, including fruit species. Autumn mushrooms are especially popular with mushroom pickers. They grow in large numbers and, having found only one family of this species, "quiet hunting" turns into a monotonous process of cutting honey agaric and putting them in baskets. Processing these mushrooms requires a minimum of time, since mushrooms growing on a birch or other tree are always clean, without forest debris and sand.

We offer you to see a photo of honey agarics on a birch, showing visually how these fruit bodies grow. Almost all of them are by their nature saprophytes, that is, parasites that destroy the remains of living representatives of the plant world.

Do honey agarics grow on birches?

Some of the honey agarics quite often settle on healthy plants and destroy them very quickly. According to experts, in central Russia, it is these fruit bodies that have recently become the cause of the death of birch groves.

Edible mushrooms growing on birches belong to III and IV categories in terms of nutritional value. However, many mushroom lovers consider them to be among the best for pickling, freezing, drying and salting. Therefore, starting from May, as soon as the spring hunting season opens, mushroom pickers begin collecting honey agarics. It is worth noting that for all types of honey agarics there are no common external signs that help determine their edibility. So, any particular type of these fruiting bodies is able to partially "change appearance". It all depends on the weather or the type of wood on which honey agarics grow.

Some novice mushroom pickers ask themselves: do all mushrooms grow on a birch? Note that the growing area of ​​many honey agarics is damaged and weakened trees, rotten and dead wood, mainly birch. The next mushrooms choose such tree species as oak, alder, willow, elm, beech, poplar, acacia and ash. Much less often honey mushrooms grow in coniferous forests: on pine, fir or spruce. Look at the photo showing how honey agarics grow on birches:

It is worth saying that meadow honey does not grow on trees at all. This species prefers to grow in open grassy areas: roadsides, forest glades, ravines, fields and garden plots.

Summer, autumn and winter mushrooms growing on birches

Winter mushrooms

However, the most recognizable for mushroom pickers is winter honey. Its fruiting begins in late autumn and can last all winter, up to the month of March. It grows not only on deciduous trees, including birch, but also on stumps and dead wood. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the photo and description of honey agarics growing on a birch in winter:

These fruiting bodies have a honey-brownish cap that is completely smooth. In young specimens, the cap is hemispherical; in adults, it is spread. During thaws, it becomes mucous, and the color of the plates becomes creamy. In addition, there are no scales on the caps, and there is no "skirt" on the leg. But this is not at all important, since winter honey fungus cannot be confused with a false species, because the latter does not grow in such a cold period. You can safely go to the winter forest in search of these fruit bodies, which can be found even under the snow.

Summer mushrooms

A photo of edible honey agarics on a birch will help you to visualize how summer species grow.These fruiting bodies begin to bear fruit abundantly from April and continue until mid or late October, depending on weather conditions. In addition to growing on birches, summer mushrooms grow on almost all deciduous tree species. This species is often found on birch stumps and rotten wood. In mountainous areas, summer mushrooms grow in coniferous forests. Young mushrooms have a small, convex and covered with a film in the lower part of the cap. With age, the cap becomes flat-convex, the veil forms a "skirt" on the leg. The plates are creamy brown, and there are also small scales on the legs.

Autumn mushrooms

Autumn mushrooms grow on birch, oak, alder, poplar, acacia and other deciduous tree species. For a better view, we present to you a photo and description of honey agaric mushrooms, "settling" on a birch:

This species is characterized by noticeable signs of difference from other honey agarics. In adulthood, its cap can reach up to 15 cm in diameter, has small scales. The color of the cap ranges from gray-yellow to yellow-brown. The honey agaric leg is framed with a clear "skirt" and covered with the same small scales as the cap. Since the spores of autumn mushrooms are white, sometimes old individuals seem to be moldy. The pulp always has a pleasant smell, even when the mushroom is overripe. Autumn mushrooms have one natural uniqueness - at night these fruit bodies glow and illuminate the place where they grow. Mushroom pickers collect them in damp woodlands, forest plantations or in clearings around birch and oak stumps. Sometimes autumn mushrooms do not hesitate to grow on shrubs or even herbaceous plants such as potatoes. Although these mushrooms prefer birch, they can settle on 200 tree species. The season for harvesting autumn mushrooms begins in mid-August and lasts until November, if the temperature is not

will drop below 12 ° C heat. A photo of mushrooms growing on a birch honey agaric will help you better know and identify this species:

Do false mushrooms grow on birches?

For many novice mushroom pickers, the question of whether false mushrooms grow on a birch is interesting? To begin with, we will tell you how to distinguish false mushrooms from their edible counterparts. The main difference between all false doubles is the absence of a film on the legs - a "skirt". The pulp of false honey agarics has a pale yellow color, with an unpleasant rotting odor. The hats have no scales at all, and the legs are hollow. In addition, all false mushrooms never grow on trees. They are located at the foot of trees, on rotten stumps or rotting wood. However, they grow in the same large colonies as edible mushrooms. Often found in mixed forests or deciduous. For false honey agarics, the harvesting season is from July to October, sometimes this species can be found even in November in warm weather. The color range of all false honey agarics has bright shades, in real species the colors are calm and more matte.

I would like to warn novice fans of "mushroom hunting": if you are not sure about the form of honey mushroom, then it is better not to risk it and not to take it to the basket. In addition, never collect honey mushrooms in industrial areas, as they have the ability to accumulate toxic substances and salts of heavy metals in themselves. Also go around the places near highways and railways, it is better to go deep into the forest or forest plantations.


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