The unique climatic conditions of Crimea caused a variety of flora and fauna of the peninsula. Representatives of the kingdom of mushrooms are incredibly numerous and interesting here. Even the most sophisticated mushroom picker will be able to find here fruits to their taste. Hundreds of names of mushrooms growing on the peninsula are known, but not all Crimean mushrooms are safe, therefore, before collecting them, it is necessary to carefully study the photo and description of edible species.
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Where and at what time to pick mushrooms in Crimea
In search of mushrooms, local residents are advised to go to the mountains. There, at an altitude of 300-700 m, whole families can be found. A good “catch” on the Ai-Petri egg. Any flat mountain platforms are very popular among fans of "hunting".
You may be interested in:Summer mushrooms
Contrary to popular belief that it is best to pick mushrooms during heavy rains or after them, experts advise to wait a little while the weather improves, the sun comes out and warms the ground well (three to four days).
This is very important because Crimean mushrooms love warm air. Comfortable temperature for them is 18-20 ° C of heat. Then they grow faster and larger. As soon as the snow melts, nature awakens, and with it the first “crop” appears. You can go on a “hunt” until the very first frosts. But especially a lot of them in the summer.
In the summer months in the forests and steppes of Crimea are widespread:
- saffron mushrooms;
- oily;
- honey mushrooms;
- raincoats;
- single barrels;
- mountain white;
- Overalls;
- slingshots;
- mosses;
- umbrellas
- sparse;
- russula;
- champignons…
In summer, you can even see birch and boletus, but not at all under birch or aspen, but in coniferous forests and birch trees.
Autumn mushrooms in September and October
Most of the Crimean mushrooms grow until October, but some can be found even before frost. At this time, only mice grow, or, as they are also called gray rowans, and autumn mushrooms. In October in the forest you can still find common oleagins, chanterelles before the first cold snap, and in September, breasts and hornets are still collected.
The places of “residence” of both summer and autumn mushrooms are forests, most often mixed, mountain plains and foothills, but they are also found in steppe zones and even near human settlements.
You may be interested in:Edible mushrooms of Crimea
The edible mushrooms of Crimea can be conditionally divided by the area where they grow: steppe, forest and mountain.
Steppe views with names and photos
In the steppe zone of the peninsula, the harvest season begins in May-June and lasts until the end of October until the first frost. The most popular are marsupial morels, golovacha and raincoats. Some of them appear as soon as snow melts in spring or even in January.
Oyster mushroom steppe (one-barrel, royal) - a one-sided funnel with widely located white plates - lives in the steppes or even semi-deserts, in places where there are no trees.
Steppe champignons also grow here - lamellar fruit bodies of a grayish-beige color, with a thick fleshy hat and a wide leg. Very tasty and healthy. Scientists have discovered antibiotics of various effects in them. Open spaces are also preferred by field champignons. Their distribution places are meadows, clearings, roadsides.
Champignons and other forest species with photos
The forest zone of the peninsula is rich and diverse. And each of them has their favorite places of growth. Crimean champignons - the most popular type of Crimean mushrooms. This species loves the soil in mixed and deciduous forests. Often find a place for themselves next to anthills or directly on them.
Raincoats, representatives of the champignon family, live in larch forests. Pearly, pear-shaped and giant grow here.
The forest climate and soil are loved by chanterelles - light yellow and orange-yellow fruiting bodies, whose leg and cap are a single whole. Two types of them are found in Crimea: ordinary chanterelles (thick-fleshy, funnel-shaped, wavy yellow-orange) and black chanterelles - tube-shaped, funnel-shaped, black-brown, black, and dark gray.
Ordinary oleores, tubular edible fruits with a characteristic slippery, smooth, flat hat, settle in bright meadows, clearings, and edges. But most of all they like pine trees with birches or oaks, as well as freestanding trees.
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Locals love Crimean porcini mushroom - a fleshy fruit with a light brown half-convex hat and a whitish-brown dense leg. Coloring depends on habitat and age. A giant bovine or talker, the huge leusopaxillus grows in deciduous and coniferous forests from early summer until mid-autumn. Often it is confused with a safe smoky talker or with a poisonous bile fungus. For this reason, you must be very careful.
Forest mushrooms also include mushrooms. In mixed forests you can find pepper and dry, but in deciduous - oak mounds.
Peppermint has a convex, and later funnel-shaped hat of light beige color, narrow frequent platelets.
Orange-brick and reddish color of a load of oak. The plates are yellow.
Also in the forest, orange-red and yellow-pink mushrooms are often found. Their favorite places are the cool shade of trees in the southern part of Crimea. Many saffron milk mushrooms near Rybachy.
Forests, in which both coniferous and deciduous trees grow, prefer gray rowing, the so-called mice. Hat rowing light or dark gray, wavy, lobed or with cracks at the edges. In young specimens, it is more round. Leg - thickened at the base, dense. Most often they are small, but there are also large sizes. Mice are hiding under fallen leaves, needles, in moss and sandy soil.
Stumps, fallen trees or the foundations of the living are the favorite places of mushrooms. The main characteristics of the honey agaric are a convex hat, which over time becomes flatter, dark brown, honey or olive. The same color and the legs. The hat, like the leg, is covered with scales.
The appearance of the hornet (genus Romarius) resembles coral, as it consists of thin twigs, but at the same time it has a distinct leg. You can meet such a peculiar coral reef in summer in deciduous forests. Its color is light beige when pressed becomes wine red.
Mountain or stone mushrooms
The main mushroom representative of the mountainous part of the peninsula is the white mountain mushroom. Often they climb specifically for him on Ai-Petri Yail. There are many of them on the flat peaks of the mountains.But you can meet him both in the steppes and in forests, including foothills, for example, near Mount Demerdzhi. It is difficult to confuse with others: a white or coffee smooth hat is attached to a thick short leg.
Riddles grow on the mountain plateaus, gray, light beige and even blue, and warm mushrooms also mountain champignons. In the foothill and mountainous areas, including in the foothill forests, you can find the above raincoats.
You may be interested in:Inedible and poisonous species
A variety of inedible species also affects even experienced mushroom pickers. In addition to fly agarics, there are those that are very skillfully disguised as healthy and tasty. These are several types of rows, champignons and talkers, as well as false ducks and pale grebes. The most common types are:
- Deadly grebe is deadly dangerous. Often confused with champignon. A characteristic difference between the toadstool is a white skirt on a leg. The champignon has the same ring, but it differs from a toadstool in that the plates on its hat in adult mushrooms darken.
Death cap The same applies to other lamellar mushrooms, similar to this poisonous mushroom, but without “skirts”. The color of the toadstool itself is gray to green, the cap is hemispherical, and with growing older it becomes round. It is often confused with russula green. But the leg ring, white scales and thick plates are sure signs of a deadly mushroom.
- White fly agaric is a deadly mushroom. It can be recognized by the egg-shaped “decoration” in the lower part of the leg.
White fly agaric - False duck is another life-threatening mushroom. It differs from the present in the absence of a ring on the leg.
- The whitish talker may resemble a Polish mushroom. The defining “toxicity” sign is a powdery coating on the hat.
Whitish talker - The poisonous purple boletus is distinguished by a large hat of an irregular shape, when pressed, black and dark blue spots appear.
- The darkening of the cap when pressed characterizes the pink thrush. And the hat itself is rather unusual. It is mucous to the touch, flat with a small indentation in the center.
Pink pink - False false is different from the real thinner red leg with a brick tint and a rather unpleasant odor.
- Gorchak is the most popular dangerous mushroom of the Crimea. There is debate among scientists about the safety of the bile fungus. However, due to the very bitter taste, this fruit is impossible to eat. For such qualities he was given a second name - mustard.
Gorchak
Answers to widespread questions
You may be interested in:Mushrooms are an important part of the Crimea ecosystem.You can collect them on the peninsula almost everywhere, but you need to understand that safe-looking mushroom can be fraught with great danger. Only accuracy, attention and knowledge will help maintain health.
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