The edible raincoat is familiar to all lovers of forest gifts. Just do not rush to put it in your basket, so as not to cut off an inedible instance by mistake. Many beginner mushroom pickers are interested in how to distinguish a mushroom from a raincoat from a poisonous analogue.

Types of false raincoats

The raincoat is a genus of champignon, only his leg is either absent or barely noticeable. To find the difference between a false and an edible specimen, you need to pay attention to the shade, especially the shape and smell of fruiting bodies.

The edible raincoat has a white fruit body and a pleasant mushroom smell

The false raincoat is assigned to the genus of basal fungi of the pseudo-raincoat family. Photos and descriptions of these fungal organisms prove that they can reach medium sizes (up to 10 cm in diameter). Fruit bodies have a spherical or tuberous shape, as well as a false leg with branches.

Did you know? Puddlefish is an inedible mushroom, but it can be used in small doses as a spice.

There are three main types of poisonous specimens:

1. Common raincoat - the mushroom has a smooth or finely scaly gray-brown skin (it can have the color of an egg shell). Photos of this organism demonstrate that it differs in tuberous fruit flesh up to 6 cm long. Over time, the mushroom cracks and becomes covered with thick wart formations. Below, the fruit flesh has a wrinkled and bare surface with micellar fibers. Inside the old mushroom, a spore powder of olive-brown color forms. The skin in some areas may burst. The young specimen has a white inner flesh, and the mature one is purple-black. Over time, the brownish powder inside acquires the smell of raw potatoes.
2. Warty puddle - it has a tuberous, gray-brown body, covered with a cork-leather shell with scales. Hat and leg are missing. The young body has a dense white flesh, which later turns into a gray-brown or olive. No powder is formed inside. Warts appear on the membrane. It has a pleasant spicy smell.
3. Spotted raincoat - this representative can be called a special organism with a pear-shaped body without a hat and legs. It is easy to distinguish it from other poisonous raincoats: it grows tilted to one side and is characterized by a rounded shape. First, the fruiting body is white, and then it acquires a purple or olive tint. On the shell of the fungus powder formations in the form of spots stand out.

In addition to the listed false raincoats, there are also stellate, bulbous, powdery and orange species. In total, there are about 20 varieties that differ in minor signs, for example, different sizes of spores.

Raincoat: similarity and difference from a raincoat

Pseudo raincoat has many names: orange scleroderma, hare potato, dust coat, black tobacco, grandfather gunpowder.

In order not to harm your health, it is important to know the similarities and differences between the edible and poisonous raincoats:

1. Real raincoats grow one at a time, and scleroderma are stacked in groups.
2. True mushrooms have a thin and brittle shell, and false ones have a cracked, leathery, compacted.
3. Small spikes are noticeable on true fruiting bodies, but no such growths on false ones.
4. In edible mushrooms, the pulp is soft and elastic, while in poisonous mushrooms it is dense to the touch.
5. Ripe scleroderma smells bad.
6. If you cut or break an inedible mushroom, it will acquire a dark shade.

Places and period of growth

The most famous among scleroderma is the common raincoat. Places of its growth in Russia are considered the western part, the North Caucasian regions and the Far Eastern regions. It has the ability to easily tolerate prolonged drought.

A mushroom can grow everywhere: on soil, rotten wood, and illuminated terrain. It can also be found in coniferous and deciduous plantations, in meadow glades, fields and forest edges. Scleroderma love moorlands (heaths), poor in potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus. They can also grow on dry sandstones, pebble soil, among moss and rare grass. Fertile and light soils are preferred for them.

Like edible raincoats, false specimens grow abundantly after rains. They appear in large numbers in July, and the growth season lasts until November.

Toxicity and symptoms of poisoning

Inedible mushroom organism is not suitable for gastronomic purposes. If you use false raincoats in large quantities, you can get an upset stomach and intestines. There were no fatal outcomes after tasting these mushrooms. Phytotoxins, which are contained in their fruiting bodies, can provoke an allergic reaction in the form of conjunctivitis or rhinitis.

Important! In cooking and medicine, it is strongly not recommended to use old raincoats. They contain more toxins.

• Scleroderma poisoning can lead to the following manifestations:
• weakness, lethargy, malaise;
• headaches;
• dullness of the skin of the arms, legs;
• change in taste;
• a drop in visual acuity;
• short-term loss of consciousness.

Contraindications

Bioactive components are contained in fruit bodies of false fungi: palmitic and oleic fatty acids, ergosterol peroxide, dimethylphenylalanine. Also, the composition of the pulp of false raincoat includes complex protein compounds and fumaric acid. In the latter, there is a large amount of calvacin, which is a natural means to inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

This allows the use of scleroderma in medicine. Animal tests have shown that due to fungotherapy, malignant tumors in animals have decreased by 2 times. Therefore, preparations based on calvacin are used to treat patients with cancer and sarcoma.

The people treat the following diseases with fruit bodies:

• oncology;
• inflammatory processes;
• soft tissue swelling;
• skin diseases (psoriasis).

Did you know? If we consider the way of feeding mushrooms, they are more like animals: they do not have chlorophyll and eat ready-made organics.

In addition to useful substances, the composition of these fungal organisms includes hazardous resinous substances, ketones and aldehydes that irritate the gastrointestinal mucosa. In some cases, they can cause the development of resinoid syndrome. Even an edible raincoat can harm the human body, as it is difficult to digest. Therefore, it is not recommended to be used by nursing or pregnant women, as well as children under 5 years old. Caution should be exercised for people with diseases of the pancreas, kidneys.

Thanks to reading this article, it was possible to establish that the false raincoat is a mushroom that is not intended for wide culinary use. Although in folk medicine it is used to treat some skin and internal diseases.