Beautiful and unusual mushrooms of the world
The most unusual organisms on Earth are mushrooms. They do not belong to flora or fauna. These are special forest organisms, not fully studied and attracting the attention of scientists from all countries. There are unusual and beautiful mushrooms that differ from other species.
Beautiful and unusual mushrooms of the world
Unusual mushrooms
The mushroom kingdom is vast and varied. According to some scientific sources, it numbers 100-250,000, but according to others - about 1.5 million species. Few of them are edible.
Each region is characterized by certain types of these unusual and beautiful organisms. There are also those that are completely different from the species we are used to.
They differ in the following main factors:
- place of growth;
- appearance;
- the degree of edibility;
- taste;
- aroma.
In Africa, boletus and russula are considered unusual, Africans bypass them and do not eat them, considering them strange and poisonous and only get to know them for the first time when they get to the territory of Russia. And for the central part of Russia and the entire CIS, butterdish is considered the most common and edible species.
In the steppe regions, porcini mushrooms are considered rare and unusual, and in the Carpathians they grow at every step and are widely used for cooking.
Description of species
Some mushrooms surprise with their beauty and unusual shapes. These types include the following:
- the milkman is blue;
- astringent panelellus;
- trembling orange;
- coral hedgehog;
- lattice;
- clavaria purple;
- starlet;
- sea anemone;
- trametes, etc.
Beautiful names do not always speak of edibility, rather, on the contrary, of the unusual shape, exotic appearance and the fact that it is better not to touch it with your hands.
Miller blue
It grows in North and Central America and East Asia. It grows both in conifers and in deciduous forest zones.
In older specimens, the color is blue-gray, in young ones it is dark blue. The liquid that stands out on the cut is distinguished by a bright blue.
It is considered edible by the inhabitants of China, Mexico and Guatemala. They are happy to fry and boil it. Mushroom caps reaching a diameter of 15-20 cm are considered especially tasty.
Panelus binder
Panellus is a beautiful mushroom native to Asia, the Australian continent, and across the world in North America. It is rare in Russia, but it is found in the Caucasus, northern Russia, Siberia and the Primorsky Territory. Refers to inedible.
It belongs to the luminous bioluminescent species. Its flesh is thin. The color is ocher, the taste is astringent. The aroma is slightly pungent. The shape of the cap in young mushrooms resembles a tree bud. When the fruiting body is ripe, it becomes ear-shaped or looks like a cracked fan. The edges become wavy and ribbed. It grows in whole colonies, using rotting stumps, logs or trunks of deciduous trees for its residence.
Orange shiver
Shiver is one of the most amazing mushrooms.
Dead trees are her home.The fruit body grows up to 8-9 cm and resembles a bright orange jelly with a sticky surface.
Humidity provokes the appearance of a kind of mucus that appears between small cracks, in dry weather it turns into a wrinkled, unsightly mass. But the next rain causes its rapid growth. Aboriginal people consider this species useful and edible, but insipid and tasteless. On the territory of Russia, the mushroom is not popular with mushroom pickers.
Forms mycorrhiza in mixed and tropical forests in Australia, Africa, Asia and North America.
Clavaria purple
The mushroom grows up to 10 cm in height
This species is widespread in Europe and North America. Its beautiful tube-like body has a lilac or purple hue, which becomes light ocher with age. Grows up to 10 cm up.
Thin graceful tubes branch off and twist. This saprophyte breaks down and absorbs organic matter from the ground.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
About the ways of nutrition, clavaria is said to be:
- humus saprophyte (saprotroph);
- optional xylotroph;
- possibly mycorrhizal symbiotroph.
By the way. Xylotrophs are a specialized ecological group of fungi that live on wood. Xylotrophs can be obligate, if wood is the only source of nutrients, or optional (like clavaria purpurea), when wood is an additional source of nutrition. If the xylotroph uses live wood, it is considered a parasite, if dead wood, it is considered a saprophyte.
The fruit bodies of the clavaria have legs - poorly expressed, shaggy at their base. They usually grow in rather dense bundles of about 20 pieces in one such bundle-cluster.
There is no information about the toxicity at the moment.
One of its relatives is the Zollinger clavaria species, which grows in Denmark, Great Britain and Ireland. The color of her fruiting body is purple. This representative is not edible and is used to indicate soil in meadows.
Starfire four-bladed
Zvezdnik is very beautiful and visible from afar. Bodies sit on dying trees that have fallen after a thunderstorm or hurricane. It got its name due to the fact that the exoperidium breaks into 4 lobes, which go down and, like on legs, lift the fruiting bodies up.
Europeans and Americans consider it a rare and inedible species with a specific bitter taste.
In the last month of summer, myceliums grow, the upper aboveground part appears. The base of the fungus is convex. Together with the spherical gleb, the middle rises up. As the spores mature, a hole opens at the top of the gleb, through which the spores are released into the environment.
The peculiar aroma attracts insects, which fly directly into the open hole in the center of the body.
Sea anemone
This species is similar to anemones, but has an unpleasant odor. In shape, this organism resembles a star.
Irina Selyutina (Biologist):
On the territory of Australia and the Pacific Islands, there is a sea anemone mushroom or starfish. Of course, he has nothing to do with marine life. The only thing that can unite them is the similarity in appearance. The fungus is very interesting in its biology - at the beginning of the "life path" the fruit body resembles a toadstool, but then the appearance changes radically. A completely new organism is born - in which an ordinary cap has divided into parts and really began to resemble the tentacles of a sea "flower" - an anemone. At the same time, the mushroom gives off the smell of falling, attracting flies, which carry its spores on their paws.
The anemone prefers to grow on a cushion of leaves in dense forests or grassy areas. Its surface is covered with sticky mucus. It is very unpleasant to touch it, so people often just trample it.
Coral Hericium
It is very similar to the beautiful creations of nature - sea corals. The color ranges from yellow to purple or blood red.
These fungi settle on decaying wood and are xylotrophs. It has been noticed that the fruiting bodies of hedgehogs often settle on wood after the present tinder fungus or chaga.
Found in old forests or abandoned parks. Listed in the Red Book.
Cuttlefish
Archer's Clathrus, or Cuttlefish and Devil's Fingers, grows in Tasmania. He came to Europe from France. The mushroom is a member of the Veselkovye family.
The view is inedible, but incredibly beautiful and terrifying at the same time. The fruit body has the shape of an egg, which exploded, and huge squid tentacles fall out of it. To some, the clathrus resembles a fantastic flower, its diameter is 15 cm. It has no legs. The surface is porous with dark irregular spots.
The body has several layers that become visible if it is broken or cut. The aroma is strong and unpleasant. It attracts various insects that feed on decaying remains and thus the fungus spreads spores. This method of distribution is called entomochoria.
Benefit and harm
All forest mushrooms have many useful properties:
- microelements;
- vitamins;
- minerals;
- phosphorus;
- fiber;
- polysaccharides;
- amino acids.
These substances are essential for strengthening the human immune system.
In pharmaceuticals and medicine, some types are used to create medicines and treat diseases, such as:
- heart failure;
- urolithiasis disease;
- immunodeficiency;
- gout, etc.
Some species are considered sources of drugs that will allow in the near future to cure a number of diseases that are now deadly.
Eating edibles regularly can help lower cholesterol levels, boost memory, lower blood pressure, and increase liver defenses.
People suffering from gastrointestinal diseases should eat foods with the addition of forest organisms in moderation and after consulting a doctor, so as not to cause a relapse.
It is better not to use them for children under 7 years old, because Children's stomachs do not yet secrete enough enzymes to digest such heavy food quickly.
Conclusion
These unusual organisms remind us of how diverse the world is, that it must be protected and treated with love. After all, the number of rare specimens in the world is decreasing every year, some species may disappear tomorrow.
