Mushroom that blows smoke. Puffball Mushroom: Edible or Not, What Does a False Puffball Mushroom Look Like? Raincoat mushroom: medicinal properties and how to cook? What can be prepared from raincoat mushroom? What can be cooked from raincoat mushroom: recipes

Wolf tobacco or puffball mushroom belongs to the most common mushrooms. Mycologists have calculated that about 60 species of raincoats grow on earth, of which about 20 species grow in our country. Among them are spherical (rounded), pear-shaped, prickly, sessile, golovachs, etc. The most common raincoats are round or pear-shaped and golovachs with a spherical head on a cylindrical leg (the head and leg make up a single fruiting body of the fungus). The pulp at a young age is white, with a pleasant smell, quite elastic, easily separated from the skin. The leg of the spherical and pear-shaped raincoat is not pronounced, it reaches a height of 5-12 cm with a thickness of 3-4 cm. Raincoats belong to category IV.

As it ages, the pulp of the puffball darkens and turns into a greenish-brown dust (spores), which is easily dispersed by wind or mechanical contact with the fungus. AT autumn time big raincoat can scatter up to several billion spores. Sometimes they are called "wolf tobacco", "grandfather's tobacco" or fluff.

These strange mushrooms can be eaten and palatability do not differ from the white fungus, at the same time they are forest healers, and some of them are capable of being windsock mushrooms. Raincoats in the forest are like weather vanes for orientation in unfamiliar areas. On a typical day in the forest, without a compass, a lost mushroom picker or hunter can determine the direction with the help of a raincoat. Knowing the direction of the wind in a given area, even in the stillness of the forest air, shaking off the fruiting body of a dry raincoat, a person will accurately know the direction of an outwardly imperceptible wind. Interesting is the use of "smoking mushrooms", or puffballs, by North American turkeys and tribes of African spearmen for hunting. When approaching the beast - bison, rhinoceros, lions - even with complete calm, they were able to determine the inconspicuous draft of the air by the behavior of the spores of the raincoat and approached the beast from the side where he could not feel the approach of the hunter. Ancient tribes of hunters used a mass of spores of these mushrooms to blind the animal, which was then attacked.

AT old times raincoat spores were used as a hemostatic agent, called magic powder. To this end, barbers kept the skins of raincoats in jars. In dried form, the raincoat was used during medical operations in veterinary medicine: cut bloody veins and wounds were sprinkled on them, since it has a “compressive and drying” force. In the domestic literature it is indicated that it is enough to apply a white slurry from the pulp of a young kolobok or the inner shell of an old powder coat to the wound, when the “tobacco” has flown out of it, and the blood coagulates, the pain subsides. This hemostatic property of raincoats was previously widely used in partisan practice in the absence of other medicines.

Naturalists have determined that mature raincoats can also be successfully used in horticulture in the fight against aphids and other pests of trees and shrubs. To do this, it is enough to set fire to the dark green filling of a ripe raincoat and fumigate the garden with acrid smoke. After a week, the procedure must be repeated.

Among the raincoats, there are many species that have a peculiar shape of the fruiting body. So, the nest of a bird with testicles resembles the fruiting body of Nidularia. The rounded, large fruiting body of the golovach resembles a soccer ball, with rays like a star - the fruiting body of earthen stars, pear-shaped - of a pear-shaped raincoat. Bunny potatoes are called some round-shaped puffballs. Often in meadows, fields, pastures, in gardens, parks and forests, a raincoat-flask grows, which got its nickname for an oblong fruit body tapering downwards. In search of porcini mushrooms, mushroom pickers often bypass these edible mushrooms. It is no coincidence that A. Cheremnov mentions them in the lines of his poem:

“The distance is transparent. The air is fresh and clean
But the thoughtful blue is pale ...
From the sleepy swamp all around
It smells of pine needles, dampness and rot.
Raincoat, hurt by a boot,
Drenched with dry, green dust.

This fungus is found from May to late autumn in glades, meadows, along roads, in squares and lawns, settles on various soils and even on rotten wood. Appears after warm rains. It grows very quickly, "by leaps and bounds." Amateur mushroom pickers noticed that giant raincoats added up to 5 cm in diameter per day. And usually they are up to 20 cm in diameter and weigh 300-400 g.

In 1977 in Estonian Museum In nature, a raincoat weighing 11 kg 150 g was demonstrated, the diameter of its fruiting body was 188 cm. In 1967, a raincoat weighing 12.5 kg with a diameter of 63 cm was found in the Moscow region, and in 1984 on the banks of the Setunka River - with a diameter of 160 cm and a mass of 7.3 kg. Some mushroom pickers found families of giant raincoats. For example, in 1988, a group of 8 raincoats was found near Kemerovo total weight about 2 pounds, and in 1984 near Narva and in 1989 in Tataria - groups of 6 mushrooms, among which the largest reached 4 kg.

When dried, the raincoats do not lose their whiteness, they are well stored in a dense plastic container, they are easily ground into powder, so they can be successfully used for making broths and sauces. In winter, this plain-looking gib with its gastronomic qualities can even compete with mushrooms.

When collecting, it must be borne in mind that more or less spherical mushrooms from the genus Pseudo-puffball also look like puffballs. True, at a young age, the latter are characterized by a very dense crusty shell, and not thin-film or soft-crusty, as in puffballs. Thus, it is very easy to distinguish them, and this must be done, since false puffballs are suspected of being able to cause poisoning, although minor, but still.

In a number of countries Western Europe raincoats are considered a delicacy and are equated with champignons. Italians consider young raincoats to be one of the most best mushrooms. When picking mushrooms in the forest, do not pass by the unfairly neglected, but very attractive and tasty mushrooms.

Mushroom puffball: useful information for beginner mushroom pickers.

• grandfather's tobacco
• wolf tobacco
• gypsy powder
• fluff
• damn apple
• hare potatoes and many others

They meet different sizes: with a pea, with an apple and even the size of a huge pumpkin. The nutritional components of the pulp are not inferior in their merits porcini mushroom and are highly rated by connoisseurs. Just like porcini mushrooms, after heat treatment or drying, they remain beautiful white color. Their main advantage is considered to be healing qualities - the mushroom gleba, attached to the cut, relieves bleeding, disinfects and contributes to its instant scarring.

Puffball mushroom: edible or not, what does it look like?

One type of mushroom

The most common types edible raincoats to which this may apply. vernacular name relate:

• Pear-shaped puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme). It has a small size of about 5.5 cm in length and width. young body pear-shaped covered with a double shell, from which a small false leg extends with small streaks of light mycelium. The outer layer is white, slightly covered with cracks, scales or spikes. In an adult fungus, this layer cracks and the inner gray-brown or yellowish shell is exposed, covering the spores that seep through the holes at the top of the fruiting body after ripening.
• Prickly puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum). It is showered with pronounced cone-shaped spikes. The color is snow-white or cream with a mesh pattern. Has an aromatic smell. Gleba is dense.
• Langermannia giant (Langermannia gigantean). Huge size mushroom reaches 8 kg of weight. Covered with smooth, slightly flaky skin. As it matures, the color of the gleba changes from white to dirty green. The skin of mature mushrooms is similar to parchment paper. The pulp is crumbly, similar to homemade cheese.
• Golovach oblong (Calvatia excipuliformis). It looks like an inflated bubble, pulled together at the bottom. It is covered with inconspicuous thin and delicate spikes, which makes it almost smooth in appearance. Gleba (pulp), in a newly appeared mushroom, is white, in an adult it is dark steel, sometimes almost black. The combination of a pronounced deficiency of pseudopods and needles, which are not inherent in raincoats, but are characteristic of false raincoats, gives reason for inexperienced mushroom pickers to confuse them with false individuals.

Raincoat mushroom false: what does it look like, can it be eaten?

Main differences

Puffball (Scleroderma citrinum) in Russia it is considered inedible or poisonous. In the West, it is recognized only as inedible, specifying that in the manufacture of sausages they replace truffles. Despite the possibility of using false puffball as a spicy seasoning for meat dishes, when using a large number fungi are likely to pose a health hazard.

This species is not difficult to distinguish from edible mushrooms. In young pseudo-puffballs, in contrast to genuine ones, the fruiting body is smooth, has a whitish, whitish-gray or icteric color. Further, as it grows, it acquires stains in the form of cracks, growths or scales of a dark ocher color. The ripe mushroom bursts, but the spores do not spill out, but accumulate in the depths of the cracked cavity.

Important: The main difference between the false puffball and the edible bigheads is expressed in the possession of a hard skin and a lilac-brown shade of aging flesh, with a rich unpleasant aroma.

Scleroderma citrinum often grows in clusters.
To prevent the false raincoat from getting into the basket of an inexperienced amateur mushroom hunting, it is necessary to incise the fungus and check its suitability by the presence of snow-white gleba and the absence of a sharp spirit of rotten raw potatoes.

Video: False raincoat (Scleroderma aurantiacum) - description.

Raincoat mushroom: medicinal properties

Mushroom spore treatment finds its use in classical and home treatments.
Mushroom gleba contains elements of calvacin, which have antibacterial and anti-cancer properties.

Means made on the basis of mushroom pulp are actively removed from the body:

1. radionuclides
2. heavy metals
3. toxic fluorine and chlorine compounds
4. toxins, as a result of infection with helminths or hepatitis, dysbacteriosis, severe inflammation of the kidneys

• Mushroom chaff compresses are an excellent remedy for the treatment and pain relief of deep cuts and malignant wounds resulting from cancer.

Infusions and broths from young flies are used:

1. to lower the temperature
2. in order to relieve inflammatory processes: with chronic tonsillitis, throat bumps, with severe ailments in the kidneys
3. to slow the growth of malignant tumors and the progression of leukemia
4. to reduce blood viscosity
5. at high pressure, angina pectoris
6. for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases
7. to strengthen immunity

• Pharmacy products made on the basis of mushroom mycelium help with problems:

1. in lymph nodes and sarcoidosis
2. with endocrine processes: goiter formation, diabetes, adrenal dysfunction
3. with respiratory system: tuberculosis, pneumonia, bronchial asthma

What can be cooked from raincoat mushroom: recipes

Porkhovik with potatoes in sour cream sauce

Products:

• Mushroom harvest - 1 kg
• Fresh potato tubers - 0.5 kg
• Onion - 1 head
• Cream or sour cream - 250 g
• Sunflower oil - 1/2 tbsp.
• Young sprigs of dill - 5-6 pcs.
• Salt - to taste

Cooking:

1. We release the heads from the prickly skin, wash
2. Boil in salted water for 5-7 minutes
3. Then rinse in a colander under running water. cold water, let it drain a little
4. Put in a hot pan, keep on medium heat, until all the moisture has evaporated
5. Add oil, add heat, fry with constant stirring
6. Mushrooms are considered ready when they begin to crackle in a pan.
7. To the finished mushrooms, add the potatoes cut into thin slices, salt
8. Fry until half cooked, sprinkle with finely chopped onion
9. We continue to cook the dish until the potatoes are fully cooked.
10. 5 minutes before readiness, pour sour cream, flavor with chopped dill, cover with a lid
11. Turn off the stove, keep under the lid for another 10 minutes

Roast with mushrooms and potatoes

mushroom schnitzel

Products:

• Giant golovach - 0.7 kg
• Fatty milk - 0.6 l
• Flour - 90 g
• Fresh egg - 1 pc.
• Sunflower oil - 3 tbsp.

Cooking steps:

1. Mushrooms are washed, cut into plates of medium thickness
2. Blot excess moisture with a paper towel
3. Sift flour into a bowl
4. In the center we make a hole, into which we pour a little salt and break the egg, stir
5. The resulting mass is diluted with milk to the consistency of thick sour cream.
6. Dip mushroom plastics in batter, fry on both sides in heated vegetable oil

Golovach in batter

Mushroom soup with puffballs

Ingredients:

• Young fluffs - 7 pcs.
• Potatoes - 3 pcs.
• Onion - 1 head
• Small carrot - 1 pc.
• Butter - 50 g
• Bay leaf - 2 pcs.
• Ground black pepper, salt - depending on preferences

Cooking like this:

1. Raincoats are cleaned of prickly skin and forest debris, washed, cut into cubes
2. Pour 1.5 liters into the pan. cold water, pour mushrooms there
3. Boil for 10-15 minutes, periodically remove the foam
4. We peel the potatoes, chop into even cubes, fall asleep in the broth with mushrooms
5. Cook until potatoes are half cooked
6. Cut carrots and onions into small squares, sauté butter put in soup
7. Salt, cook until the potatoes are ready
8. Serve with sour cream

Soup with powder

Fried eggs with raincoats in Hungarian

Ingredients:

• Green onions with small heads - 3 pcs.
• Mushrooms - 0.4 kg
• Fresh eggs - 5 pcs.
• Grated cheese - 90 g
• Butter - 50 g
• Cream - 1/2 tbsp.
• Parsley, salt and ground sweet red pepper - to taste

Technological process:

1. Mushrooms washed, cut into slices
2. Then boil in a hot pan until the juice is completely evaporated.
3. Next, add 1 tbsp. oil, add chopped onion, fry a little
4. Remove the pan from the stove, pour the cream into the mushrooms, mix
5. We shift the onion-mushroom mass to a baking sheet with high sides.
6. We make 5 holes in it, break an egg into each
7. Salt, sprinkle with grated cheese and parsley
8. Bake for 10-15 minutes

Hungarian dish with heads

Italian raincoat roast

For cooking you will need:

• Grandfather's tobacco - 1 kg
• Onion - 2 heads
• Cream 15% - 1.5 tbsp.
• Butter - 100 g
• Salt, pepper - to taste

The main stages of the process:

1. Cut the head of the vegetable into half rings
2. We free raincoats from the top skin, cut into pieces
3. In cow's oil, first fry the onion half rings, then add the mushrooms
4. When the secreted mushroom juice has evaporated by half, add a thin stream of cream
5. After boiling, add spices and salt, simmer over low heat for 15 minutes
6. Before serving, sprinkle with lemon juice, sprinkle with herbs

Italian mushroom delicacy

Video: Raincoat (mushroom) fried with garlic

How much to cook puffball mushroom?

• A young crop can be cooked without pre-boiling
• Adult raincoats, before frying, boil for 6-7 minutes
• When using boiled mushrooms, for full readiness, cook for at least 15 minutes

Raincoat mushroom: how to cook for the winter?

1 option

• We clean the fresh mushroom crop from litter
• Without washing, cut across
• Lay out on a baking sheet in a single layer.
• Dry in the sun (in hot weather) or in oven, in the following way:

1. First, set the temperature to 50 ° C
2. After 1-2 hours, we increase the degrees to 70-80 ° C
3. Then lower to 55 ° C, hold for about 2 hours
4. Do not forget to periodically mix the blanks and take out dry mushrooms

Important: When white drops (protein substances) appear on the mushrooms, reduce the temperature, remove the baking sheet from the oven. After the temperature drops, we send raincoats for further drying. Otherwise, the workpiece will take on a black, unsightly appearance.

Dried golovach

Option 2

Preparing in advance:

• Raincoats - 1 kg
• Salt - 1.5-2 tbsp. l.
• Vinegar 6% and water - 1/2 tbsp.
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Black pepper - 6 peas
• Carnation - 2 stars
• Bay leaf - 2 pcs.

Let's move on to the preparation process:

1. Mushrooms are cleaned, sorted
2. Pour the marinade into an enameled pan, put the mushrooms, bring to a boil
3. Cook stirring for 15-20 minutes
4. When cooked, mushrooms secrete juice and everything is covered with liquid.
5. Remove foam with a slotted spoon
6. Ready mushrooms sink to the bottom, the marinade becomes transparent
7. Next, put the mushrooms tightly in jars, pour sunflower oil
8. Close with plastic lids

Pickled puffball

Video: Drying raincoats. Rules for quality processing.

Mushroom raincoat: why people call hare potatoes: interesting information

Most often, this is what I call young mushrooms. When they appear above the ground, they are shaped like young potatoes.

So, based on the foregoing, it becomes clear that there are a lot of benefits from a raincoat, and in vain some mushroom pickers underestimate it.

Video: Raincoats - delicious mushrooms. Where do they grow and how to collect?

Systematics:

• Division: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
• Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
• Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
• Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
• Order: Agaricales (Agaric or Lamellar)
• Family: Agaricaceae (Champignon)
• Genus: Lycoperdon (Raincoat)
• View: Lycoperdon perlatum (Edible puffball)

Other names for mushroom:

Synonyms:

• Raincoat real

• Raincoat prickly

• Raincoat pearl

Usually actually raincoat called young dense mushrooms that have not yet formed a powdery mass of spores (“dust”). They are also called: bee sponge, rabbit potato, and a ripe mushroom - fluff, pyrkhovka, duster, grandfather's tobacco, wolf tobacco, tobacco mushroom, damn tavlinka and so on.

fruiting body:
The fruiting body is pear-shaped or club-shaped. The fruit spherical part in diameter ranges from 20 to 50 mm. Lower cylindrical part, sterile, 20 to 60 mm high and 12 to 22 mm thick. In a young fungus, the fruiting body is spiny-warty, white. In mature mushrooms, it becomes brown, buffy and naked. In young fruiting bodies, Gleba is elastic and white. The raincoat differs from hat mushrooms in a spherical fruiting body.

The fruiting body is covered with a two-layer shell. Outside, the shell is smooth, inside - leathery. The surface of the fruiting body of a real raincoat is covered with small spikes, which distinguishes the mushroom from those that have the same at a young age white color like the mushroom itself. The spikes are very easy to separate at the slightest touch.

After drying and maturation of the fruiting body, white Gleba turns into an olive-brown spore powder. The powder comes out through the hole formed in the top of the spherical part of the fungus.

Leg:
An edible raincoat can be with or without a barely noticeable leg.

Pulp:
in young raincoats, the body is loose, white. Young mushrooms are suitable for consumption. Mature mushrooms have a powdery body, brown in color. Mushroom pickers call mature raincoats - "damn tobacco." Old raincoats are not used for food.

Disputes:
warty, spherical, light olive-brown.

Spreading:
Edible puffball is found in coniferous and deciduous forests from June to November.

Edibility:
A little-known edible delicious mushroom. Raincoats and dust jacketsedible until they lose their whiteness. The young are eaten fruit bodies, Gleb which is elastic and white. It is best to fry this mushroom, pre-cut into slices.

Similarity:
The edible raincoat outwardly resembles, which has the same pear-shaped and club-shaped fruiting body. But, unlike a real raincoat, a hole does not form on its top, but the whole top part, after disintegration, only the sterile leg is preserved. And all other signs are very similar, Gleba is also dense and white at first. With age, Gleba turns into a dark brown spore powder. Golovach is prepared in the same way as a raincoat.

Notes:
These mushrooms are familiar to everyone, but almost no one collects them. When you knock down white balls, brown clouds of smoke rise up - the spores of these mushrooms scatter. This species was called a raincoat because very often it grows precisely after the rains. Until the raincoats inside turn green, this delicious mushrooms. Italians consider this species to be the most delicious of mushrooms. But, when Gleba acquires a greenish color, the mushroom becomes cottony and tasteless, but not poisonous. Therefore, the collected mushrooms cannot be stored for a long time, they even plucked turn green very quickly.

So, we begin to study the raincoat mushroom: a photo and a description of the culture will help to understand all the variety of its species:

The giant puffball mushroom is edible at a young age.

Langermannia gigantea- the largest raincoat with a smooth surface. Fruit bodies up to 50 cm in diameter, weighing up to 20 kg. AT early age round white with a velvety-felt shell with white flesh. Later, their shell becomes leathery and durable, but remains almost white and smooth. At the end of the development of the fruiting body, the shell cracks and begins to peel off in layers, exposing an ocher or umber-brown layer of pulp, resembling cotton wool in consistency. When touched or under the influence of wind, the layer of pulp "smoke" with spores. At the same time, the internal parts of the pulp do not disintegrate into powder and remain in the form of an ocher "cotton" ball, which is not washed away by rain, and emits spores in dry weather.

Look at the photo, how it looks like its development and growth:

Puffball mushroom in different stages
Puffball mushroom in different stages

It grows on soils rich in nitrogen, in gardens, in bird cherry bushes and in deciduous forests.

Old fruiting bodies remain intact until mid-summer of the following year. The mushroom is rare.

Has no poisonous twins.

The mushroom is suitable for frying.

Bear mushroom pear-shaped raincoat in the photo

Bear mushroom pear-shaped puffball is edible at a young age. Fruiting bodies up to 1-3 cm in diameter, 2-5 cm tall, pear-shaped. The expanded upper part tapers at the bottom into a sterile (spore-free) stem. The surface is smooth or finely warty. At an early age, white with white flesh, later with a brownish tint. The flesh is white at first, then olive or umber brown. Numerous white strands of mycelium grow from the lower sterile leg. After maturation of the spores, a hole is formed, from which the fungus releases spores in the form of "smoke".

Occurs from July to October.

Grows in pine and spruce forests on tree trunks, on or near stumps on rotting wood.

Many mushroom pickers are wondering if the raincoat mushroom is false and dangerous to human life and health. We answer: toxic doppelgangers does not have.

The raincoat is real in the photo

Raincoat pearl in the photo

A real raincoat, or a pearl one, is edible at a young age. Fruiting bodies up to 2-5 cm in diameter, 3-9 cm tall, pear-shaped. The expanded upper part tapers at the bottom into a sterile (spore-free) stem. Lycoperdon perlatum are covered with large conical spines, around which are small spines. The thorns easily fall off the fruiting body when touched by hand and on their own. After the spikes fall off, numerous areas remain on the surface, forming a mesh pattern. At an early age, white with white flesh, later turning yellow, finally gray-brown, powdery inside. After the spores mature, the fungus bursts and releases the spores in the form of "smoke". It looks like a pear-shaped raincoat, but it is without thorns, with smooth or warty fruiting bodies.

It grows in pine and spruce forests on forest floor of needles, in fields, in grassy clearings and on decaying wood.

Occurs from July to October.

Mushrooms puffballs large: bag-shaped and elongated

Consider other large raincoat mushrooms, find out which ones are suitable for eating.

Raincoat (golovach) bag-shaped (Calvatia utriformis) edible at a young age. Large raincoat. Its surface cracks into numerous, almost hexagonal cells. Fruit bodies up to 16 cm in diameter. At an early age - round white with a velvety-felt shell with white flesh. Later they become flattened gray-ochre, with a shell mottled with small protruding "hexagons". The white inner mass, as the spores mature, first becomes olive, then chocolate brown. At the end of the development of the fruit body, the shell becomes gray-ochre, cracks in the upper part, exposing the spore powder of olive-brown color.

It grows in pastures, meadows, former cattle pens, sometimes in forests in a clearing.

Occurs from July to October.

Has no poisonous twins.

Raincoat (golovach) elongated (Calvatia excipuliformis) edible at a young age. Fruit bodies up to 3-8 cm in diameter, 5-15 cm tall, club-shaped or pistillate. At an early age, white with white flesh, with a fine-grained or finely spiny surface. Later they become ocher and finally tobacco brown. Below is the sterile part in the form of a leg. The flesh is first white, then yellow-brown, then dark brown. At the end of the development of the fruiting body, the shell becomes tobacco-brown, cracking at the top, exposing the spore powder of an olive-brown color.

Grows in pine and spruce forests on forest floor of needles, in deciduous forests, in gardens and parks.

Occurs from July to October.

poisonous and inedible twins does not have.

Warning: getimagesize(/images/pages/2pg3_69_69..php on line 128

Mushrooms, which will be discussed today, belong to a special group - Gasteromycetes. This name immediately becomes clear if we remember that the word "gaster" in Latin means some kind of closed cavity (for example, the stomach). And the fruiting bodies of these fungi are, indeed, completely closed until the spores mature. Not without reason in the people they are also called nutreviks.

WITHOUT HAT AND WITHOUT LEGS
In the rounded body of raincoats, one can only conditionally distinguish a “hat” and a “leg”, since these mushrooms do not have true legs and hats. If you break the raincoat, you will find soft tissue inside, while it is still white, but over time it will become darker, and it is from it that the smallest mushroom spores subsequently form, which, by the way, are located inside the mushroom itself, and not on the ones we already know tubes or plates.

"SMOKE" FROM SPOR
The mushroom itself will also change color - from snow-white it will turn brown or even brown. Surely somewhere at the end or middle of summer you found such small dark balls in the forest, in a clearing, or even in your garden. When you move them, brown "smoke" is sure to come out. And no, in order to pass by, you must definitely touch such a ball, pat it, and even the most curious ones probably also picked it up. But the fungus, oddly enough, such an excessive interest is only good.
This brown "smoke" is nothing but the smallest spores that have formed inside the fungus. and now, with our help, they leave the parent organism, are easily picked up by the wind and fly away to explore new habitats. It is interesting that such “smoking” mushrooms are popularly called “damn tobacco” or “grandfather tobacco”.
The spores of the raincoat leave the fungus through a gap in the integument formed on its surface. In addition, while the spores are not yet ripe and are inside the fungus, they are constantly mixed with special threads that prevent them from sticking together in the mother's body.

WITH CLOSE RELATIVES
Interesting are the adaptations to the spread of spores in other fungi related to puffballs. Some of them have an aromatic or pungent odor that attracts insects or rodents that eat the fruiting bodies. At the same time, fungal spores pass through the intestines of the animal intact, and, moreover, fall into the ground immediately along with the fertilizer.
But some tropical puffball mushrooms and mushrooms of the genus Veselka (Phallus) have a mucous surface and exude a strong smell that attracts insects that crawl on their surface. Light spores of fungi stick to insects and they carry them to a new place.

"ROOTS" - STRINGS
If you carefully pull a young mushroom out of the ground, then at its base you can see quite thick “roots” for its size.- these are mycelial strands, which consist of many thin mushroom threads - hyphae.
Outside this strand, the hyphae cells are dead; they protect the living and functioning inner cells. And the fungus needs these adaptations for the same thing that plants need real roots for. In addition to the fact that they deliver water and minerals to raincoats, they also contribute to the spread of the fungus, growing in different directions and forming new fungal organisms in the conquered space.

GROWTH RATE
Raincoats differ in high growth rate. Usually, the period of development from the moment of laying mushrooms to its ripening is 10-14 days, depending on environmental conditions. One of the mechanisms is high speed growth is as follows: in the rudiment of the fruiting body of some fungi, there are already well-formed elements of the fruiting body. With further growth of the fungus, all its parts simply stretch. The growth rate, for example, of a relative of the puffballs, the common oystercatcher (Phallus impudicus), is 5 mm per minute! This is top speed growth known to plant organisms.

HEALING PROPERTIES
Known and healing properties raincoat. The young mushroom is a patch mushroom. When cut, the inner white part of the fungus can be safely applied to the wound, as it is sterile. Also, this mushroom pulp has a hemostatic effect.
In a mature state, when the fungus becomes like a piece of dirty cotton wool soaked in nicotine, it does not lose its antiseptic properties. Its spores (that is, the contents of the “ball”) were previously applied to festering wounds, and the wounds healed faster.
In addition, raincoat tinctures were used for diseases of the blood and lymph. Young fruiting bodies of raincoats can be used for food, although it is not particularly popular with mushroom pickers. But in vain, the raincoat has interesting property- it removes toxins from the body.

MUSHROOM CLEANSING
However, all mushrooms have a not very good, at first glance, feature - the ability to absorb heavy metals, radioactive substances, toxic volatile compounds. And if a mushroom grows next to some "dirty" place, then it will certainly contain the entire list of substances around.
But it is this feature of mushrooms to absorb everything that is around that turned out to be very useful for environmental services. It turns out that mushrooms can be used... to clean the soil. For example, a dozen boletus mushrooms that grew up on radioactive soil clean up a meter of such a dirty area. And the raincoat is recognized as the most effective "cleaner". His power of cleaning is simply unmatched!

WHAT ARE RAINCOATS?

PEAR-SHAPED RAINCOAT
A common species in our country is the pear-shaped puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme). Its body is ovoid or pear-shaped, from below it is elongated into a false leg. Its height is from 3 to 5 cm, in diameter 2-3 cm. Pear-shaped puffball grows in mixed, deciduous and coniferous forests often found in clearings. The mushroom is edible, eaten boiled.

A HEAD IS BIGGER
In addition to puffballs, other Gasteromycetes can be found in our forests, for example, a fungus from the genus Golovach (Calvatia). It lives on the soil in forests. It differs from raincoats in larger sizes, and also in the fact that the outer shell of its fruiting body in the upper part is completely destroyed and the fungus acquires a cup-shaped shape. One of the species of this genus was even found beyond the Arctic Circle on the island of Svalbard. Golovach has an oval fruiting body, smoothly turning into a kind of "leg" filled with sterile tissue. In a young state, the golovach is often white, with maturation its color changes. The mushroom is also edible when young.

PORKHOVKA
The genus Porkhovka (Bovista) is close to raincoats. Its fruiting body opens with a slit at the top. The outer layer of the fungus shell evenly peels off, and when ripe, the fungus breaks off from the mycelial strands and lies freely on the surface of the earth. In our forests, the blackening fluff (Bovista nigrescens) is usually found, although in addition to forests it can also be found in fields, meadows, and pastures. This mushroom is also known as "hare potato". The fruiting body is oval, 3-6 cm in diameter, initially white, later becoming black-brown. Young fruiting bodies of porkhovka are edible.

MUSHROOM GLASSES
Glass mushrooms are special both in form and in habitat among Gasteromycetes. Their typical representative is the genus goblet (Cyathus). The name really speaks. His appearance these mushrooms really resemble miniature goblets with a diameter of only a few millimeters (up to 1 cm) and a height of no more than 15 mm. The most common among the goblets is Olla's goblet (C. olla) and the striped goblet (C. striatus).

EARTH STARS
The shape of star mushrooms (r. Gast¬rum) is interesting, they are also called earthen stars. Their body consists of two layers of tissue, while outer layer over time, it cracks with radial blades, which, moreover, also bend back. Therefore, the mushroom looks like a small star.