North Caucasus. To the mountains for mushrooms! Arkhyz. Mushroom tours
This section is dedicated to the mushrooms of the North Caucasus. Most of the species of these mushrooms also grow in other regions of Russia, with the only difference that the fruiting season of a particular type of mushroom may be shifted in time, depending on the climatic conditions of the region. Currently, the site contains an incomplete list of mushrooms of the North Caucasus. The section is periodically replenished with descriptions of new types of mushrooms, as they identify with the existing species of these amazing creatures of nature.
Mushrooms represent a separate extraordinary kingdom of living organisms on our planet. The total number of mushroom representatives is estimated at one and a half million. It should be noted that only a small part is made up of large, visible varieties of mushrooms. Such fungi are called macromycetes, they form significant fruiting bodies and are well visible to the naked eye. Fungi reproduce by spores, very often carried by the winds. The underground part of the fungus is called hyphae or mycelium, it is an extensive network of fine filaments.
Each type of mushroom has a scientific Latin name. Popular names are not so reliable, since they differ even within the boundaries of one language. However, it should be borne in mind that there are some discrepancies in the scientific mushroom nomenclature, which suggests that a unified and consistent classification of macromycete fungi has not yet been created. To determine the type of macromycetes, the most important features are their shape, the color of fruit bodies, and structural features.
The most diverse can be the form of the fruiting bodies of macromycete fungi. The vast majority of them, which are of gastronomic interest, have fruiting bodies with caps. Often, the texture of the surface of its cap (covered with scales, smooth, velvety, etc.) and the shape of the edge of the cap (bent, even, streaked, torn, etc.) can play a significant role in determining the mushroom. An equally important criterion is the plates - the structure and their method of attachment to the stem.
The plates can be adherent, free or creeping down to the stem of the mushroom. There are also plates that can have a notch or notch at the point of attachment to the mushroom stem (in another way, the plates are "attached with a tooth"). The plates can be sparse and frequent, branched, varying in length, or equal. Separate similar species of macromycetes can only be recognized by the color of their spore powder.
Fruiting bodies are necessary for fungi for one single purpose - to spread spores. Many of them, in addition, are a delicious dish for both humans and animals. In the course of their evolution, most of the cap mushrooms received protective features - toxins, thanks to which some of their mass became deadly poisonous. However, many types of cap mushrooms are completely harmless to humans. Therefore, they can be collected and eaten, observing only one elementary condition: do not pick mushrooms that are unfamiliar to you. Only after making sure of the absolutely correct definition of the species of the mushroom, you can afford to appreciate all its taste. But it should also be remembered that some of the edible mushrooms may have poisonous "doubles", in terms of the totality of signs, surprisingly reminiscent of their non-poisonous counterparts. Acquaintance with the diverse and interesting world of macromycete mushrooms, the ability to distinguish all the subtleties in a species can give a person real pleasure and arouse genuine admiration for the inexhaustible beauty of natural forms.
In 2014, we came to Kislovodsk to rest in early September. A friend in Pyatigorsk had a birthday, and when we drove up to her, it turned out that she had just returned from a trip to the mountains for mushrooms.
Naturally, we, too, were eager to pick mushrooms in the mountain woods. A few days later we managed to make such a trip in the car of our beloved friend Natasha. I must say right away that it was one of the most wonderful days I spent in the North Caucasus: wonderful company, wonderful weather, mountain landscapes and mushrooms that we collected - all together left an indelible mark on my soul!
Actually, I was going to make a publication about a trip to Jili Su (translated as "warm water"), but then I realized that first I had to write about a mushroom hunting trip. It is advisable to go to the Dzhily Su tract without long stops on the way and without turning off the highway to visit other interesting places. It is important not to be scattered about, otherwise you will not have time to look at Jili Su. This is what we did after 2 years, i.e. in 2016.
But for mushrooms, we drove along the same road and drove more than half the way, while visiting very beautiful places. I'll tell you about them now, my dear seven-day students!
So, on September 14 in the morning, my friends left Pyatigorsk, took us to Kislovodsk, and our friendly company went mushrooming to the mountains in a great mood!
Elbrus is perfectly visible from here in clear weather. And I want to photograph this majestic handsome man more and more ...
White "papakha" Elbrus and the Caucasian ridge.
We drove, had fun talking, and it was decided to stop by the Narzan Valley and get some water. Despite the great popularity of trips to the Narzans, I have not yet been to the Valley, and my husband even more so. The Narzan Valley is located near Kislovodsk in the Khasaut river valley.
When you drive up to the Valley, you see a building in the form of an old fortress.
Hotel of the 30s. It doesn't work.
In the Khasauta Valley, many sources of mineral water flow out of the ground. The ground here is red because of the iron compounds in the narzans.
Somewhere the water flows well and there is an approach to the source, somewhere it drips, and in many places the water just beats out of the ground.
We walked a little in the river valley, picked up a daffodil, washed and drove on.
A small forest is visible on the slopes below the plateau. In such places, mushrooms are collected.
How not to take a picture against the background of the mountains! There is a wonderful observation deck here.
But isn't it time to look for mushrooms already? They stopped, scattered in all directions. Mushrooms were not found, but lingonberries were found.
Lingonberry. And here it does not grow.
I dug a piece of soil with a knife, brought it home and planted it in the country. It does not grow, but it does not disappear either.
I read somewhere that they are called Pink Rocks or Avatars.
You stand at such a cliff and take your breath away from the height and beauty!
Here's another great view! Mountains and forests to the horizon!
I don’t want to leave, but we have to look for mushrooms. We drove on and stopped in the floodplain of a stream. We climbed the mountain forest like goats! Oh, this is not an easy job, looking for mushrooms on the mountain slopes: up - down - up again. Were worn out ...
Now we are approaching closer ... And what is Elbrus!
But then by the road we came across menhirs - sacred ancient stone pillars in the form of a phallus. They say that in ancient times they were worshiped, and they showed the way to travelers ... Well, everything, it's time to go to the forest! They hit the forest. At first, we did not come across mushrooms, but I did not lose heart, but happily took off the herbs-flowers.
What a miracle: is it a gentian, or a bell? No, it's still a gentian!
It was not easy to walk: hummocks and damp pits, like in a swamp, bushes, dwarf trees, and lingonberries all around. Mushrooms have begun to come across, hurray!
A herd of cows walked not far from us. Then a shepherd appeared on a short, stocky horse and showed us where it is better to move in order to pick up mushrooms.
We walked for a long time, we were pretty tired, we collected mushrooms, and the day was over half. We ate with gusto at the car and drove on. We also visited another interesting place that day - Mount Tuzluk (translated as Salty, Solonchakovaya). Tuzluk has the shape of an absolutely regular pyramid, like fudge candy from our childhood. This is amazing!
We climbed to its top. There is a belief that a pebble must be brought up from the foot and left there, or rather, put on sacral structures made of stones. At the top of Tuzluk there are two huge regular-shaped stone blocks. Who could have dragged them there? Legend has it that this is the altar of the Sun, built by the Babylonians!
Having visited the top of Tuzluk, we all finally drowned ourselves! We turn towards the house. But on this day, the weather presented us with another gift. In the mountains, it changes instantly: we were just picking mushrooms lightly, on Tuzluk we were already dressed in windbreakers, and when we set off on the way back, clouds began to "set" on the mountains. First, I filmed it from the car.
Mountains in the "caps" of clouds.
We are so high that the road from where we came from can be seen far, far away ...
The clouds dropped even lower ...
And here it is, the last shot. We reached the turn to the Narzan Valley, and through my car window I could see a waterfall, the name of which I had forgotten.
We were all thoroughly tired that day! But how many impressions were left from the trip to the mountains for mushrooms! They are still alive in me ... And I am very grateful to my friends for this wonderful journey!
Yes, one more thing: in the mountains there were so many beautiful stones, amazing in structure and shape, that all the time I wanted to take them to the dacha ... 2000 km by train ... But we put one boulder in the trunk to decorate my friend's garden!
Thanks to everyone who travels with me!
Next time we will reach Jila Su!
The entry is posted in sections:
Urupsky region is a place where many types of mushrooms grow. With the arrival of spring, many mushroom pickers rush to the mushroom hunt and continue to pick mushrooms until late autumn. Oyster mushrooms, popularly called plane trees, boletus and aspen mushrooms, mushrooms, milk mushrooms, ryadovki and russula, volushkas and mushrooms, grow here, and this is not a complete list. I would like people to learn more about these food products, how they are useful and what are the hidden threats.
Fungi are the lowest spore plants. The peculiarity of mushrooms is that they contain substances that are characteristic not only of plant, but also of living organisms. In terms of chemical composition, mushrooms are nevertheless closer to vegetables. From the group of carbohydrates, they contain sugars that give mushrooms a sweetish taste (especially a lot of them in porcini mushrooms, boletus, boletus), as well as a significant amount of fiber (in dried mushrooms it is 20-25%). Mushrooms contain a little protein, for example, in porcini mushrooms its 4.6%, in boletus - 3.9%, in chanterelles and autumn mushrooms - 3.2% each, butterscotch - up to 1.9%. Fat contains from 1 to 6%. The composition of mushrooms includes components that are very necessary for humans: lecithin, provitamin D, as well as some fatty acids. Almost all edible mushrooms contain vitamins A, B1, B2, C, D, PP, as well as potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, iron, chlorine and sulfur. The digestibility and assimilability of mushrooms is slightly lower than that of other plant products. This is explained by the presence in their tissues of a difficult-to-digest special fungal fiber - fungin, which is similar in chemical composition to insect chitin. To improve the digestibility and assimilation of mushrooms, it is recommended to grind them well. In this regard, it is not recommended to give mushrooms to children.
All mushrooms are divided into edible, conditionally edible, poisonous and inedible.
Edible mushrooms are not the same in structure, they are divided into spongy - white, boletus, boletus, boletus and lamellar - champignons, russula, chanterelles, honey mushrooms.
Conditionally edible mushrooms are those that contain bitter or harmful substances, have an unpleasant odor, etc. They can be consumed only after prolonged soaking and thorough heat treatment. These mushrooms include milk mushrooms (yellow, black, white), volnushki, milkmen, talkers, morels, lines, etc.
Poisonous and inedible mushrooms (pale toadstool, fly agaric, smelly, panther and red, false mushrooms, gall fungus) are not edible, their use can lead to severe poisoning and even death.
Only experienced mushroom pickers who are well versed in mushrooms can pamper themselves and their families with mushroom dishes, otherwise poisoning is possible. Poisoning can be caused by eating poisonous mushrooms. They are very dangerous, as they retain their toxic properties after soaking, boiling, drying, salting, pickling and other processing methods.
The most severe poisoning is considered a pale toadstool. This mushroom contains a poisonous protein substance - phalloidin, which is found in all its parts. Phalloidin, having penetrated into the human circulatory system, destroys and dissolves red blood cells (blood cells), as a result of which irreversible changes occur in the body. It is enough to swallow 1/4 of the cap of the pale toadstool to cause fatal poisoning. Signs of poisoning appear after 7 to 40 hours. Headache, dizziness, anxiety begins. Then abdominal pain, diarrhea, cramps appear. All this is accompanied by weakness, a rare pulse, the appearance of profuse cold sweat.
In 2010, a case of fly agaric poisoning was registered in the Urupsky district. Since in the opinion of experienced mushroom pickers there is an edible fly agaric, the people call them - "royal fly agaric", "mirimushka", but they are silent, or do not know that the "royal fly agaric" has a lot of similarities with the "panther fly agaric", the most poisonous of all types of fly agaric mushroom, in case of poisoning with this type of mushroom, a lethal outcome is possible.
Poisoning is also possible with conditionally edible mushrooms, for example, morels or lines, if the technology of their preparation is violated. Signs of poisoning with these mushrooms make themselves felt after 2–6 hours. Nausea, abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea, severe thirst and weakness appear. You can also get poisoned by edible mushrooms if they are old or have been lying for a long time. In old and stale mushrooms, the decomposition process begins, and poisonous decay products of proteins appear. & nbsp
To what has been said, it should be added that the use of home-canned mushrooms, even if they are edible, can lead to a serious disease - botulism. The fact is that the causative agents of botulism that got on the fungus from the soil develop well in the absence of oxygen, in hermetically sealed jars, forming a very strong toxin (poison). The main signs of botulism are headache, dizziness, dry mouth, blurred vision - fog and double vision, weak pupil response to light. The victim has a wobbly gait, the eyelids are drooping, the movement of the limbs is difficult, and the temperature is normal. Often, a person who has suffered botulism becomes disabled.
In 2011, 2 cases of botulism with 1 death were registered in the Urupsky district.
Botulinum toxin is one of the strongest biological poisons (it surpasses the toxicity of gyurza), which is secreted by bacteria of the genus Clostridium. The source of botulism is warm-blooded animals, they secrete pathogens with feces that pollute the soil and water, while the animals themselves do not get sick, since there is oxygen in their intestines. In an oxygen-containing environment, clostridia take the form of a spore. The spore must get into an oxygen-free environment (can, deep wound, sausages, smoked meats), and then the vegetative form releases a toxin that infects a person. A patient with botulism is not dangerous to others.
Botulism treatment is carried out only in the infectious diseases hospital. At the same time, an anti-botulinum serum, which neutralizes the toxin, will be urgently introduced in the hospital as a specific treatment. In the future, the tactics of treatment depends on the patient's condition, in severe cases (for example, with paralysis of the respiratory muscles) - transfer to the intensive care unit. With this disease, there is a high rate of deaths. First aid is required before doctors arrive. First of all, you need to cleanse the stomach and intestines of food. To do this, give the victim cold boiled water to drink, after which it is necessary to induce vomiting, irritating the root of the tongue and throat with a teaspoon or finger. This procedure is repeated several times, until the vomit becomes "pure water".
I would like to warn people against eating poorly washed canned mushrooms. Even clean-looking mushrooms, it is advisable to boil it again for about fifteen minutes before use, since the botulism toxin decomposes under the influence of high temperature. And to believe that mushrooms will have a foreign taste or smell in the presence of botulinum toxin is not worth it, it does not give color or smell, in appearance, infected mushrooms are no different from ordinary ones. Although sometimes, a sign of a poor-quality product is the bombing of cans, and such cans, of course, should be discarded.
Do not pick mushrooms along roads and railways, as they accumulate toxic substances that make them unusable. Never eat overripe, wormy, sour mushrooms or parts of them, as they cannot always tell if the mushroom is edible or false, and it is also difficult to determine when they were harvested.
Waves, milk mushrooms and other mushrooms containing milky juice must be boiled or soaked before pickling to remove bitter substances that irritate the stomach.
You cannot buy and prepare a mixture of different types of mushrooms, mushrooms without legs, as mushrooms with milky bitter juice can get into the mushroom assortment, which must first be soaked, and in this case the mushroom dish will be spoiled.
You cannot buy mushrooms on the street and from random people. In private markets, mushrooms are most likely not checked, and in public markets, only grown mushrooms, such as champignons, are allowed to trade. & Nbsp
We have already written about the village of Arkhyz, and our old material tells about historical sites, but today the site will tell you about the unforgettable "quiet hunt" - mushroom tours in Arkhyz.
Specific, for mushrooms they begin around the middle of July and end in the last days of October, while the still warm Caucasian sun supports the autumn vegetation. There are a lot of mushrooms here, and there are hunters for each type of this delicacy.
The first to appear are the handsome porcini mushrooms. Arkhyz is famous and beautiful because, due to the location of this settlement (high mountains, the middle Caucasus), an negligible content of heavy metals in the soil, waters and atmosphere is concentrated here. We started our conversation with porcini mushrooms precisely because they are one of the largest representatives of the kingdom, therefore, they have every chance of absorbing harmful compounds most of all. But believe me, it is here, in the quiet of the mountains and the rustle of the foliage of the mountain forest, that mushrooms are the most environmentally friendly.
In addition to the giants of porcini, there are many smaller mushrooms in Arkhyz. The most numerous are honey mushrooms that successfully hide from gatherers in the most unexpected places - just around recreation centers, campgrounds and other busy places. It is not difficult to look for mushrooms in Arkhyz, it is important to remember the main thing: look for old birches and large meadows covered with the shade of tall trees. Honey mushrooms usually grow in families around a living tree, but grebes, which look like mushrooms, dominate on stumps and rotting fallen trunks. The yellowness, brittleness and blackening plates under the cap give out the toadstool - one of the main differences.
Usually they go to Arkhyz for mushrooms in organized mini-groups of 2-3 cars, so you can always count on mutual assistance, help in processing mushrooms on the spot. Having dumped a bunch of mushrooms on the tables (for example, on the territory of the Taulu camp site), the group can quickly and efficiently disassemble the catch, weed out the unnecessary and defective.
Despite the seeming drought in the region, there are always mushrooms in Arkhyz. If you are lucky enough to visit here early in the morning, you will immediately understand why - abundant mountain dew wets the soil and grass so that without rubber boots you can soak your feet to a state typical for late autumn and boots with thin soles.
Thus, even in the driest years, mushrooms have been here, are and will be. Perhaps the only drawback of the long absence of precipitation is the small growth and dryness of the mushrooms, but this is also rare.
How to get to Arkhyz for mushrooms
A relatively well-maintained asphalt road leads to Arkhyz. Moving through Cherkessk, Ust-Dzheguta, then going to the right into the tunnel in Kumysh, you need to head for Zelenchukskaya, Kardonikskaya, Ermolovka. Further, right along the road, Nizhny Arkhyz begins - but there are more mushrooms further, in the Upper Arkhyz.
