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Many fungi form mutually beneficial alliances with plants. It's possible, it's possible, but it's better - it's impossible

In Russia they love mushrooms. Due to the high content of beneficial nutrients nutritional value they are sometimes equated to meat. True, they are considered heavy food: chitin, which is part of their cell walls, is very poorly digested, so children and people with weak digestion should not eat them. And mushroom poisoning is much more common than meat poisoning. And the point is not only that inexperienced mushroom pickers confuse edible and inedible mushrooms.
The hotter and drier the summer, the more rumors and reports of poisonings arise edible mushrooms-mutants. Last year even
Rospotrebnadzor warned residents of the Saratov region that "due to the abnormally hot summer, mushrooms can mutate, acquiring uncharacteristic properties, including edible mushrooms - causing severe poisoning."
good ecological situation doesn't guarantee anything

The intensity of accumulation of harmful substances by fungi increases with ambient temperature. “In hot and dry weather, fewer fruiting bodies are formed, and accordingly, the concentration of harmful substances in them increases,” explains Belyakova. In addition, in hot, dry weather, harmful substances that get into the soil are not washed out by rain, so the first mushrooms that appear after a drought are especially dangerous.
Largest quantity Mushrooms absorb harmful substances in cities, industrial zones, and along the sides of highways and roads. But mushrooms stuffed with pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers can be found anywhere: large enterprises released into the atmosphere toxic substances, which are carried by the wind and fall with precipitation in the most harmless places. So you can be poisoned by edible mushrooms in forests remote from industrial centers. For example, cadmium was found in mushrooms collected in the forest near the village of Vasyutino in the Sergiev Posad district of the Moscow region at a concentration of 8 mg/kg. For acute poisoning, 15-30 mg of cadmium is sufficient, and the lethal single dose for cadmium, according to WHO estimates, ranges from 350 mg. Last year in mushrooms Voronezh region, which was heavily damaged by fires, a high content of cadmium was also found - almost twice the norm: a huge mass of ash that formed on the site of the ashes collected a large number of harmful substances, including cadmium.
In some types of edible mushrooms growing in relatively clean forests, the content of lead and arsenic exceeds the permissible levels several times. Thus, researchers from Moscow State University calculated that it is enough to eat about three hundred grams of environmentally friendly rowing or raincoat within a week to exceed the permissible intake of arsenic (and taking into account the amount of arsenic entering the human body with food and drinking water, - 100 grams of these mushrooms is enough).
“The concentration of harmful substances in mushrooms can be higher than normal even on uncontaminated soils,” says Belyakova. “Imagine, the mycelium absorbs substances from an area of several hundred square meters - this is a huge coverage! - and all of them are concentrated in the fruiting bodies. Then there is an accumulation of harmful substances by mushrooms is not necessarily associated with a bad environmental situation. Mushrooms are able to perceive these elements from the soil, where they are contained only in the form of traces, absorb them and store them in the fruiting body. But, when there are emissions or some kind of environmental disaster, the situation ", of course, sharply and significantly worsens: the mushrooms collect all the harmful substances that enter the soil."
At the same time, it is almost impossible to predict how long the soil will store poisons: “The accumulation of heavy metals in the soil is a complex process,” Belyakova continues. “It depends on many things, in particular on whether there was rain, how abundant it was, how do they pass in this place groundwater— and from a host of other factors. But if there is a release, the mushrooms will absorb and accumulate hazardous substances as long as they remain in the soil. Because, although the fruiting body does not live long, the mycelium can exist for tens and hundreds of years."

You don’t have to travel far to find radioactive mushrooms

A quarter of a century after the Chernobyl accident, in many affected regions (not only in Russia, but also in Europe), mushrooms still remain contaminated with radiation. Every now and then news appears that Belarus exports radioactive mushrooms to Europe, and in 2009 the German government paid hunters 425 thousand euros as compensation for boar meat that was contaminated with radiation (boars are big fans of mushrooms, so they are especially sensitive to radiation pollution ). German experts believe that in the next 50 years the situation in better side will not change - contamination of some types of mushrooms will most likely remain at the same level, and maybe even increase slightly. However, you don’t have to travel that far to get radioactive mushrooms - in some areas Leningrad region The permissible content of radioactive cesium in mushrooms has been exceeded by more than twice. Olga Tsvetnova and Alexey Shcheglov, who participated in the elimination of the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident, explain this by the fact that mushrooms are “champions in the accumulation of radioactive cesium. On average, its concentration in mushrooms is more than 20 times higher than in the most contaminated layer of forest litter, and on two to three orders of magnitude more than in the least contaminated wood."
The main mineral element included in the fruiting bodies of mushrooms is potassium, a chemical analogue of cesium-137, so mushrooms absorb radioactive cesium especially actively. At the same time, strontium-90, another common radioactive element, is absorbed by mushrooms much less well.
As in the case of heavy metals, the content of radionuclides in mushrooms depends on their species, soil properties and characteristics water regime. Fungi accumulate more radiation on highly moist forest soils, and mycorrhizal fungi do this best (for example, Polish mushroom, svinushka, butterdish, boletus, boletus), since their mycelium is located in top layer soils where the concentration of radionuclides is maximum. Soil saprophytes ( umbrella mushroom, raincoat) accumulate less radionuclides, and the purest of all are mushrooms growing on trees, such as honey mushrooms. “When consuming mushrooms collected in forests contaminated with radionuclides and heavy metals, there is a high probability of not only internal radiation, but also increased exposure to these elements on the human body,” explain Tsvetnova and Shcheglov.
However, although Rospotrebnadzor calls wild mushrooms " mortal danger"Don't despair.
What to do if you still want mushrooms?

When picking mushrooms, you need to follow simple precautions. “We must remember that you should not collect mushrooms along roads, near landfills and factories,” reminds Belyakova. “There are especially many harmful substances in the soil, and no matter how good and edible you may think the mushroom collected in these places is, it may turn out to be cause of severe poisoning and serious health problems. Each person has their own dose. You can eat from the same plate with someone: one will feel bad, the other will not - it’s all very individual. The standard “exclusion zone” is 30-50 km around large industrial centers."
In any case, the risk of getting serious poisoning from one plate of edible mushrooms is not very high, but it is still better to control yourself and not overuse mushrooms. In addition, you should not rush for the first harvest of mushrooms after the drought.
Collected mushrooms you need to boil it, ideally draining the broth 2-3 times - it is this that collects a significant amount of salts of heavy metals and even radioactive cesium. " Cooking significantly reduces the content of radionuclides, console Tsvetnova and Shcheglov. “Successive cooking for 15-45 minutes with at least two changes of water reduces the concentration of 137Cs in mushrooms to acceptable values.”

Cheers! ;-)

Articles about Hunting

07/26/2011 | Mushrooms: you can, but it’s better - you can’t

The hotter and drier the summer, the more rumors and reports of poisoning by edible mutant mushrooms arise. Last year, even Rospotrebnadzor warned residents of the Saratov region that “due to the abnormally hot summer, mushrooms can mutate, acquiring uncharacteristic properties, including edible mushrooms - causing severe poisoning.”

Boletus mushrooms accumulate both radiation and cadmium, but if you cook the soup longer and drain the water twice, you can take a risk. Photo: PhotoXpress

They simply absorb nutrients from the environment

“These, of course, are not mutants, there were simply emissions, and the mushrooms accumulated harmful substances,” says mycologist Galina Belyakova, deputy dean of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University. “Mushrooms are a special kingdom of living organisms; in addition to their own characteristics, they combine characteristics of animals and plants. In their lifestyle, they resemble plants, but fungi are heterotrophs, that is, they feed on ready-made organic substances and, unlike plants, are not able to produce them themselves, but actively absorb nutrients from the environment."

Arbuscular mycorrhiza is the oldest primary form symbiosis of plants with soil fungi. The fungi participating in it penetrate inside plant cells, forming special intracellular structures there - arbuscules.

According to the method of nutrition, there are three main environmental groups mushrooms:

1. saprotrophic fungi that feed on dead organic matter. Such fungi can live, for example, on soil or on dead wood;

3. symbiont mushrooms that form a mutually beneficial alliance with green plants (plants feed the mushrooms with organic matter, and the mushrooms help the plants absorb from the soil minerals). The third group includes lichens (a union of a fungus and algae) and mycorrhiza (a symbiosis of a fungus and a root higher plant).

The mushrooms that we collect are only a small part of the fungal organism, its fruiting body. Fruiting bodies grow on mycelium (mycelium), which is a network of thin branched threads. “The area occupied by the mycelium is huge—hundreds of square meters—and the fungus feeds on this entire area,” says Belyakova. “Mushrooms growing on the soil—soil saprotrophs—release enzymes into the soil and then absorb ready-made nutrients through the entire surface of the mycelium. And everything that was in the soil is then concentrated in the fruiting bodies of these mushrooms. But not all mushrooms feed on what is in the soil, for example, honey mushrooms grow on trees and feed by decomposing wood - therefore, their content of harmful substances is always much lower" .

Together with nutrients mushrooms also absorb heavy metals (cadmium, mercury, lead, copper, manganese, zinc and others), radionuclides, pesticides and other harmful substances. The content of heavy metals in mushrooms is several times higher than in the soil in which they grow. “At such concentrations, metals are not harmless, and although they may not be enough to cause severe poisoning immediately, if you eat mushrooms regularly, the consequences can be quite serious,” says toxicologist Nikolai Garpenko from the University of Nottingham.

Heavy metals accumulate in the body and are very poorly excreted from it. Acute poisonings proceed rapidly, while chronic poisonings (caused, as a rule, by prolonged exposure and accumulation of harmful substances) are more blurred. Symptoms of heavy metal poisoning can be general (nausea and vomiting, abnormal heartbeat and blood pressure, constriction or dilation of the pupils, lethargy, drowsiness or, conversely, excitability) or specific to each substance. But, whatever the symptoms, first aid for all poisonings is standard (then you must call a doctor).

On the shores of the Kandalaksha Bay, russula grow in lichen. Photo: PhotoXpress

Alexey Shcheglov and Olga Tsvetnova, employees of the Department of Radioecology and Ecotoxicology of the Faculty of Soil Science at Moscow State University, have been studying the ability of fungi to accumulate harmful substances for many years. In their opinion, mushrooms not only intensively accumulate heavy metals, but have a specific affinity for some of them. Thus, some mushrooms may contain 550 times more mercury than the substrate on which they grow. Different types mushrooms prefer to accumulate various heavy metals: the umbrella mushroom absorbs cadmium well, pig mushroom, black milk mushroom and raincoat absorb copper; champignon and White mushroom- mercury, russula accumulates zinc and copper, boletus - cadmium. Shcheglov and Tsvetnova explain that the accumulation of heavy metals and radionuclides depends on many factors - from chemical properties the element itself, the biological characteristics of the type of mushroom, the age of the mycelium and, of course, the conditions in which the mushroom grows: climate, composition of water and soil.

Toxic substances accumulate first of all in the spore-bearing layer of the mushroom, then in the rest of the cap, then in the stem: “metabolic processes are most intense in the caps, therefore the concentration of macro- and microelements there is higher than in the stems. As the fruiting bodies develop, the intensity of accumulation of elements also changes “There are usually more of them in young fruiting bodies than in old ones,” they say.

A good environmental situation does not guarantee anything

Champignons can be grown anywhere. The best soil for them - horse manure, but they are not demanding of light. Photo: RIA NOVOSTI

The intensity of accumulation of harmful substances by fungi increases with ambient temperature. “In hot and dry weather, fewer fruiting bodies are formed, and accordingly, the concentration of harmful substances in them increases,” explains Belyakova. In addition, in hot, dry weather, harmful substances that get into the soil are not washed out by rain, so the first mushrooms that appear after a drought are especially dangerous.

Mushrooms absorb the greatest amount of harmful substances in cities, industrial zones, and along the sides of highways and roads. But mushrooms stuffed with pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers can be found anywhere: large enterprises emit toxic substances into the atmosphere, which are carried by the wind and fall with precipitation in the most harmless places. So you can be poisoned by edible mushrooms in forests remote from industrial centers. For example, cadmium was found in mushrooms collected in the forest near the village of Vasyutino in the Sergiev Posad district of the Moscow region at a concentration of 8 mg/kg. For acute poisoning, 15-30 mg of cadmium is sufficient, and the lethal single dose for cadmium, according to WHO estimates, ranges from 350 mg. Last year, mushrooms in the Voronezh region, which were heavily damaged by fires, also contained a high content of cadmium - almost twice the norm: a huge mass of ash formed at the site of the ashes collected a large amount of harmful substances, including cadmium.

In some types of edible mushrooms growing in relatively clean forests, the content of lead and arsenic exceeds the permissible levels several times. Thus, researchers from Moscow State University calculated that it is enough to eat about three hundred grams of environmentally friendly rowing or raincoat within a week to exceed the permissible intake of arsenic (and taking into account the amount of arsenic entering the human body with food and drinking water, 100 grams is enough these mushrooms).

“The concentration of harmful substances in mushrooms can be higher than normal even on uncontaminated soils,” says Belyakova. “Imagine, the mycelium absorbs substances from an area of several hundred square meters - this is a huge coverage! - and all of them are concentrated in the fruiting bodies. Then there is an accumulation of harmful substances by mushrooms is not necessarily associated with a bad environmental situation. Mushrooms are able to perceive these elements from the soil, where they are contained only in the form of traces, absorb them and store them in the fruiting body. But, when there are emissions or some kind of environmental disaster, the situation ", of course, sharply and significantly worsens: the mushrooms collect all the harmful substances that enter the soil."

At the same time, it is almost impossible to predict how long the soil will store poisons: “The accumulation of heavy metals in the soil is a complex process,” Belyakova continues. “It depends on many things, in particular on whether there was rain, how abundant it was, how groundwater flows in a given place - and from a host of other factors. But if there is a release, the mushrooms will absorb and accumulate dangerous substances as long as they remain in the soil. Because, although the fruiting body does not live long, the mycelium can exist for dozens and hundreds of years."

You don’t have to travel far to find radioactive mushrooms

A quarter of a century after the Chernobyl accident, in many affected regions (not only in Russia, but also in Europe), mushrooms still remain contaminated with radiation. Every now and then news appears that Belarus exports radioactive mushrooms to Europe, and in 2009 the German government paid hunters 425 thousand euros as compensation for boar meat that was contaminated with radiation (boars are big fans of mushrooms, so they are especially sensitive to radiation pollution ). German experts believe that in the next 50 years the situation will not change for the better - contamination of some types of mushrooms will most likely remain at the same level, and maybe even increase slightly. However, you don’t have to travel that far to buy radioactive mushrooms—in some areas of the Leningrad region, the permissible content of radioactive cesium in mushrooms is more than twice as high. Olga Tsvetnova and Alexey Shcheglov, who participated in the elimination of the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident, explain this by the fact that mushrooms are “champions in the accumulation of radioactive cesium. On average, its concentration in mushrooms is more than 20 times higher than in the most contaminated layer of forest litter, and on two to three orders of magnitude more than in the least contaminated wood."

The main mineral element included in the fruiting bodies of mushrooms is potassium, a chemical analogue of cesium-137, so mushrooms absorb radioactive cesium especially actively. At the same time, strontium-90, another common radioactive element, is absorbed by mushrooms much less well.

As in the case of heavy metals, the content of radionuclides in mushrooms depends on their species, soil properties and characteristics of the water regime. Fungi accumulate more radiation on heavily moistened forest soils, and mycorrhiza-forming mushrooms do this best (for example, Polish mushroom, pigwort, butterfly, boletus, boletus), since their mycelium is located in the upper layer of soil, where the concentration of radionuclides is maximum. Soil saprophytes (umbrella mushroom, puffball) accumulate less radionuclides, and the purest of all are mushrooms growing on trees, such as honey mushrooms. “When consuming mushrooms collected in forests contaminated with radionuclides and heavy metals, there is a high probability of not only internal radiation, but also increased exposure to these elements on the human body,” explain Tsvetnova and Shcheglov.

However, although Rospotrebnadzor calls wild mushrooms a “mortal danger,” do not despair.

What to do if you still want mushrooms?

When picking mushrooms, you need to follow simple precautions. “We must remember that you should not collect mushrooms along roads, near landfills and factories,” reminds Belyakova. “There are especially many harmful substances in the soil, and no matter how good and edible you may think the mushroom collected in these places is, it may turn out to be cause of severe poisoning and serious health problems. Each person has their own dose. You can eat from the same plate with someone: one will feel bad, the other will not - it’s all very individual. The standard “exclusion zone” is 30-50 km around large industrial centers."

In any case, the risk of getting serious poisoning from one plate of edible mushrooms is not very high, but it is still better to control yourself and not overuse mushrooms. In addition, you should not rush for the first harvest of mushrooms after the drought.

The collected mushrooms need to be boiled, ideally draining the broth 2-3 times - it is this that collects a significant amount of heavy metal salts and even radioactive cesium. “Culinary processing significantly reduces the content of radionuclides,” console Tsvetnova and Shcheglov. “Successive cooking for 15-45 minutes with at least two changes of water reduces the concentration of 137Cs in mushrooms to acceptable values.”

In Russia they love mushrooms. Due to their high content of beneficial nutrients, their nutritional value is sometimes equated to meat. True, they are considered heavy food: chitin, which is part of their cell walls, is very poorly digested, so children and people with weak digestion should not eat them. And mushroom poisoning is much more common than meat poisoning. And it’s not just that inexperienced mushroom pickers confuse edible and inedible mushrooms.

The hotter and drier the summer, the more rumors and reports of poisoning by edible mutant mushrooms arise.

Last year, even Rospotrebnadzor warned residents of the Saratov region that “due to the abnormally hot summer, mushrooms can mutate, acquiring uncharacteristic properties, including edible mushrooms - causing severe poisoning.”

They simply absorb nutrients from the environment

Arbuscular mycorrhiza is the most ancient, primary form of symbiosis between plants and soil fungi. The fungi participating in it penetrate inside plant cells, forming special intracellular structures there - arbuscules.

“These, of course, are not mutants, there were simply emissions, and the mushrooms accumulated harmful substances,” says mycologist Galina Belyakova, deputy dean of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University. “Mushrooms are a special kingdom of living organisms, in addition to their own characteristics, they combine characteristics of animals and plants. In their lifestyle, they resemble plants, but fungi are heterotrophs, that is, they feed on ready-made organic substances and, unlike plants, are not able to produce them themselves, but actively absorb nutrients from the environment."

Based on their feeding method, there are three main ecological groups of mushrooms:

1. saprotrophic fungi that feed on dead organic matter. Such fungi can live, for example, on soil or on dead wood;

3. symbiont mushrooms that form a mutually beneficial alliance with green plants (plants feed the mushrooms with organic matter, and the mushrooms help the plants absorb minerals from the soil). The third group includes lichens (a union of a fungus and an algae) and mycorrhiza (a symbiosis of a fungus and the root of a higher plant).

The mushrooms that we collect are only a small part of the fungal organism, its fruiting body. Fruiting bodies grow on mycelium (mycelium), which is a network of thin branched threads. “The area occupied by the mycelium is huge - hundreds of square meters - and the fungus feeds on this entire area,” says Belyakova. “Mushrooms growing on the soil - soil saprotrophs - secrete enzymes into the soil and then absorb ready-made nutrients through the entire surface of the mycelium. "And everything that was in the soil is then concentrated in the fruiting bodies of these mushrooms. But not all mushrooms feed on what is in the soil, for example, honey mushrooms grow on trees and feed by decomposing wood - therefore, their content of harmful substances is always much lower" .

Along with nutrients, mushrooms also absorb heavy metals (cadmium, mercury, lead, copper, manganese, zinc and others), radionuclides, pesticides and other harmful substances. The content of heavy metals in mushrooms is several times higher than in the soil in which they grow. “At such concentrations, metals are not harmless, and although they may not be enough to cause severe poisoning immediately, if you eat mushrooms regularly, the consequences can be quite serious,” says toxicologist Nikolai Garpenko from the University of Nottingham.

On the shores of Kandalaksha Bay, russula grow in lichen
Photo: PhotoXpress

Thus, some mushrooms may contain 550 times more mercury than the substrate on which they grow. Different types of mushrooms prefer to accumulate different heavy metals: the umbrella mushroom absorbs cadmium well, pig mushroom, black milk mushroom and raincoat absorb copper; champignon and porcini mushroom - mercury, russula accumulates zinc and copper, boletus - cadmium. Shcheglov and Tsvetnova explain that the accumulation of heavy metals and radionuclides depends on many factors - on the chemical properties of the element itself, the biological characteristics of the mushroom species, the age of the mycelium and, of course, on the conditions in which the mushroom grows: climate, water and soil composition.

Toxic substances accumulate first in the spore-bearing layer of the mushroom, then in the rest of the cap, then in the stem: “metabolic processes are most intense in the caps, therefore the concentration of macro- and microelements there is higher than in the stems. As the fruiting bodies develop, the intensity also changes accumulation of elements. In young fruiting bodies, as a rule, there are more of them than in old ones,” they say.

A good environmental situation does not guarantee anything

Champignons can be grown anywhere. The best soil for them is horse manure, but they are not picky about light
Photo: RIA NOVOSTI

Mushrooms absorb the greatest amount of harmful substances in cities, industrial zones, and along the sides of highways and roads. But mushrooms stuffed with pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers can be found anywhere: large enterprises emit toxic substances into the atmosphere, which are carried by the wind and fall with precipitation in the most harmless places. So you can be poisoned by edible mushrooms in forests remote from industrial centers. For example, cadmium was found in mushrooms collected in the forest near the village of Vasyutino in the Sergiev Posad district of the Moscow region at a concentration of 8 mg/kg. For acute poisoning, 15-30 mg of cadmium is sufficient, and the lethal single dose for cadmium, according to WHO estimates, ranges from 350 mg. Last year, a high content of cadmium was also found in mushrooms in the Voronezh region, which was heavily damaged by fires - almost twice the norm: a huge mass of ash formed at the site of the ashes collected a large amount of harmful substances, including cadmium.

“The concentration of harmful substances in mushrooms can be higher than normal even on uncontaminated soils,” says Belyakova, “imagine, the mycelium absorbs substances from an area of several hundred square meters - this is a huge coverage! - and all of them are concentrated in the fruiting bodies. Then there is an accumulation of harmful substances by mushrooms is not necessarily associated with a bad environmental situation. Mushrooms are able to perceive these elements from the soil, where they are contained only in the form of traces, absorb them and store them in the fruiting body. But, when there are emissions or some kind of environmental disaster, the situation ", of course, sharply and significantly worsens: the mushrooms collect all the harmful substances that enter the soil."

You don’t have to travel far to find radioactive mushrooms

A quarter of a century after the Chernobyl accident, in many affected regions (not only in Russia, but also in Europe), mushrooms still remain contaminated with radiation. Every now and then news appears that Belarus exports radioactive mushrooms to Europe, and in 2009 the German government paid hunters 425 thousand euros as compensation for boar meat that was contaminated with radiation (boars are big fans of mushrooms, so they are especially sensitive to radiation pollution ). German experts believe that in the next 50 years the situation will not change for the better - contamination of some types of mushrooms will most likely remain at the same level, and maybe even increase slightly. However, you don’t have to travel that far to get radioactive mushrooms - in some areas of the Leningrad region, the permissible content of radioactive cesium in mushrooms is more than twice as high. Olga Tsvetnova and Alexey Shcheglov, who participated in the elimination of the environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident, explain this by the fact that mushrooms are “champions in the accumulation of radioactive cesium. On average, its concentration in mushrooms is more than 20 times higher than in the most contaminated layer of forest litter, and on two to three orders of magnitude more than in the least contaminated wood."

However, although Rospotrebnadzor calls wild mushrooms a “mortal danger,” do not despair.

What to do if you still want mushrooms?

When picking mushrooms, you need to follow simple precautions. “You need to remember that you shouldn’t pick mushrooms along roads, near landfills and factories,” reminds Belyakova. “There are especially many harmful substances in the soil, and no matter how good and edible a mushroom collected in these places may seem to you, it may turn out to be cause of severe poisoning and serious health problems. Each person has his own dose. You can eat from the same plate with someone: one will feel bad, the other will not - this is all very individual.

The standard "exclusion zone" is 30-50 km around large industrial centers."

The collected mushrooms need to be boiled, ideally draining the broth 2-3 times - it is this that collects a significant amount of salts of heavy metals and even radioactive cesium. “Culinary processing significantly reduces the content of radionuclides,” console Tsvetnova and Shcheglov. “Successive cooking for 15-45 minutes with at least two changes of water reduces the concentration of 137Cs in mushrooms to acceptable values.”

Nutritional value of mushrooms

Despite their low calorie content (250 kcal per 100 g of dry matter), mushrooms - even in small quantities - cause a feeling of satiety. They contain a fairly large amount of proteins (4-5%); Moreover, the proteins of some mushrooms (for example, porcini, boletus, boletus) are complete, that is, they contain all the essential amino acids. Fat - up to 10%, they contain a very valuable substance - lecithin. There are few carbohydrates, but there are a lot (more than 20) of mineral elements - especially potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron. There are a lot of microelements and vitamins: A1, B1, B2, C, D, PP.

What's great for a Russian is death for a German

Mushrooms were not traditionally eaten in Finland, but the situation changed during World War II due to food shortages. The Finnish government has launched a special educational program, and from 1969 to 1983, more than 50 thousand people were trained to collect and identify mushrooms. By 1979, 72% of the country's population was already picking mushrooms.

In Germany and France, mushrooms have traditionally been considered a food for the poor. In France, only truffles and champignons are valued, while the Germans prefer chanterelles and white mushrooms (as well as tinder fungi); Russula in both are considered poisonous. Italians love white truffles, as well as raincoats, the Swiss love chanterelles, and Catalans consider saffron milk caps a delicacy. In many countries Western Europe Milk milk, mushrooms, saffron milk caps, strings and morels are considered inedible. Dear different countries European species: umbrella mushroom, dung beetles, oyster mushrooms - in Russia they are classified in the fourth - lowest - category of edibility.

Mongols collect almost exclusively Mongolian row mushrooms, but absolutely not porcini and boletus mushrooms. In India, mushrooms are eaten almost completely - moreover, eating mushrooms for a long time was considered a crime there (although in some areas hallucinogenic mushrooms were used in religious ceremonies).
Japan and China have an ancient mushroom tradition, mushrooms play a very important role there important role not only in cooking, but also in traditional medicine. But there is no tradition of mushroom picking in China at all - but they have learned to grow all the mushrooms they need. The Japanese also grow many mushrooms, but they also like to collect them.

Tatiana Vayntrob

Tatiana Vayntrob

They simply absorb nutrients from the environment

Arbuscular mycorrhiza is the oldest, primary form of symbiosis between plants and soil fungi. The fungi participating in it penetrate inside plant cells, forming special intracellular structures there - arbuscules.

Based on their feeding method, there are three main ecological groups of mushrooms:

1. saprotrophic fungi that feed on dead organic matter. Such fungi can live, for example, on soil or on dead wood;

Alexey Shcheglov and Olga Tsvetnova, employees of the Department of Radioecology and Ecotoxicology of the Faculty of Soil Science at Moscow State University, have been studying the ability of fungi to accumulate harmful substances for many years. In their opinion, mushrooms not only intensively accumulate heavy metals, but have a specific affinity for some of them. Thus, some mushrooms may contain 550 times more mercury than the substrate on which they grow. Different types of mushrooms prefer to accumulate different heavy metals: the umbrella mushroom absorbs cadmium well, pig mushroom, black milk mushroom and raincoat absorb copper; champignon and porcini mushroom - mercury, russula accumulates zinc and copper, boletus - cadmium. Shcheglov and Tsvetnova explain that the accumulation of heavy metals and radionuclides depends on many factors - on the chemical properties of the element itself, the biological characteristics of the mushroom species, the age of the mycelium and, of course, on the conditions in which the mushroom grows: climate, water and soil composition.

A good environmental situation does not guarantee anything

You don’t have to travel far to find radioactive mushrooms

However, although Rospotrebnadzor calls wild mushrooms a “mortal danger,” do not despair.

What to do if you still want mushrooms?

1. Test yourself by completing the suggested tasks (at the teacher’s discretion - in class or at home).

Fungi are eukaryotes, unicellular or multicellular living organisms, in whose cells

Answer: there is a clearly defined core.

They breathe, eat, grow and reproduce. Like all living organisms, they are capable of metabolism with environment, absorbing from it the substances necessary for life and releasing waste products. Examples of fungal waste products:

Answer: antibiotics, vitamins, enzymes.

2. Most fungi are formed by thin branched threads - unicellular or multicellular

Answer: hyphae.

3. The structural features of mushrooms are interconnected with life processes and allow them to live in a wide variety of conditions. For example:

4. Fungi can reproduce by parts of mycelium or spores, and some (yeasts)

Answer: budding.

5. The living conditions and feeding methods of mushrooms are diverse:

6. However, with all the variety of feeding methods, all mushrooms need ready-made organic substances. This is due to the structural features of their cells, namely the absence

Answer: chlorophyll - a pigment that ensures photosynthesis.

7. The basis of the mushroom is the mycelium, which provides

Answer: the fungus feeds by absorbing nutrient solutions.

8. Mushrooms have characteristics of plants and characteristics of animals. Signs of the Animal Kingdom:

Answer: mushrooms require ready-made organic substances; they lack chlorophyll; the cell membrane of mushrooms contains chitin, a substance characteristic of animals.

Signs of the Plant Kingdom:

Answer: mushrooms are not able to actively move, they constantly grow, they absorb food in the form of dissolved substances, just like plants.

9. Many mushrooms form mutually beneficial alliances with plants. For example:

Answer: cap mushrooms (boletus, boletus, boletus) entwine the roots of the tree with their mycelium, forming mycorrhiza or mushroom root. Mushrooms come from trees organic matter, and in return they give water and mineral salts.

10. The mutually beneficial cohabitation of two organisms is called

Answer: symbiosis.

11. Lichen - an example of symbiosis

Answer: hyphae of a fungus and algal or cyanobacterial cells.

12. Adapting to different conditions, lichens have acquired different life forms

Answer: scale, leafy, bushy.

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