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This common edible autumn mushroom is not as firm and tasty as the best boletes, but is often mixed with other mushrooms or dried. They can be added to risottos, stews and sauces. Leccinum comes from the Italian leccino, which was used to describe rough-stemmed boletes. Scabrum is from the Latin scaber, meaning rough, rugged or roughened. This bolete is easy to identify. There are a few other Leccinums with brown caps which can be hard to distinguish but none of these are poisonous; regardless, always thoroughly cook before consuming.
Type
Boletes.
Distinguishing Features
The cap can appear to have various shades of brown, and is sticky to the touch when wet. The surface is initially finely tomentose (velvet-like) but usually becomes smoother with age. Caps range from 5 to 15cm in diameter when fully expanded. Stems are white or buff measuring 2 to 3 cm in diametre. Immature specimens have barrel-shaped stems; at maturity most stems are more regular in diametre, tapering slightly towards the cap. Dark brown woolly scales cover the whole of the stem surface but are noticeably coarser on the lower part of the stem.
Height
They typically grow anywhere from 7 to 20 cm tall.
Habitat
These boletes are found under or very close to birch trees. (Boletes are mycorrhizal, meaning they form symbiotic relationships with the roots of trees.) These boletes have been found throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe, parts of Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Spore Print
Spore prints are brown and if seen under a microscope are subfusiform.
Season
August to November.
Gills
No gills. Boletes have small pores underneath the cap that are usually quite spongy.
Edibility
This must be thoroughly cooked before eating! Some consider this to be a good edible mushroom however according to Galloway Foods, a trustworthy source, this bolete is usually best dried and mixed with other dried fungi and used as thickener in stock pots. Some people may experience digestion issues with Leccinums.
Other Name
Rough Birch Bolete.
Staghorn Sumac or Rhus hirta, One of the easiest deciduous shrubs to identify throughout the year, especially mid to late summer. stag-horn sumac is in the anacardiaceae, or cashew family. Although technically a shrub, it can grow to a tree size. Stag-horn sumac is native to the eastern parts of Canada and the United States. By late summer it has beautiful autumn coloured foliage and the fruit is a brilliant crimson red. Poison sumac or Toxicodendron vernix, has leaves somewhat similar to stag-horn sumac. However, the big difference is that the poison sumac has clusters of grayish white berries that hang down, and it tends to grow exclusively in low, wet, or flooded areas such as swamps. The large clustered seed pods attract a variety of wildlife into the winter months.
Trunk/Bark
The trunks are generally between 5 and 10 cm or 2 to 4 inches wide, but some have been recorded with diameters as great at 38 cm or 15 inches. Bark is typically smooth and dark brown. Bark on older wood is smooth and grey to brown.
Branches/Twigs
Stag-horn sumac gets its name from its thick, velvety upper branches, which resemble the antlers of young male deer. Younger branches tend to be brown and smooth. Branches display U-shaped leaf scars in winter.
Height
Stag-horn sumac grows in an open form that can grow up to 7 metres or 25 feet tall and can be as equally wide.
Leaves/Needles
Stag-horn sumac has alternate, compound leaves, 40 to 60 cm or 16 to 24 inches long. Leaflets are narrowed or rounded at the base and sharply pointed at the tip with finely serrated edges. The leaflets are dark green and smooth above, and pale beneath, except along the midrib.
Flowers
Compact clusters of greenish-yellow flowers bloom from June to July. Individual panicles of flowers can get to about up to 30 cm or 1 inch long and 15 cm or 1/2 inch across. Although on average they are about half that. Each flower is about 5mm or 1/4 inches across, consisting of 5 spreading petals, a calyx with 5 lobes, 5 stamens, and a central pistil.
Fruit
Stag-horn sumac fruits mature from August to September. The fruiting head is a compact cluster of round, red, hairy fruits called drupes. Each drupe measures about 5mm or 1/4 inches in diameter and contains one seed. Each cluster of drupes can contain anywhere from 100 to 700 seeds. Only shrubs that are 3 to 4 years old can produce the fruit.
Habitat
This shrub is found throughout the eastern half of the U.S., Canada, as well as in parts of Europe and Asia. It generally prefers fertile, upland sites but tolerates a wide variety of conditions. It can grow in slightly acid soil but will not do as well as those in fertile areas. Typical habitats include open fields, roadsides, fence rows, and parkland.
Edible Parts
The ripe fruit can be used in baking but the tiny black seeds are very hard and can be problematic for the teeth if chewed on. The fruit has a citrusy yet sour flavour that is best enjoyed as a beverage. To Make “bush lemonade” or “Sumac-ade”, pick 10 to 15 clusters of drupes and add to 2 to 3 litres of cold water. Let the berries soak overnight and keep cold. After leaving for 12 to 24 hours, pour through a coffee filter and enjoy similar to lemonade.
Other Name
Rhus Typhina.
One of the smaller species of red waxcap fungi, Hygrocybe coccinea - the Scarlet Waxcap or Scarlet Hood - is a fairly frequent find on cropped grassland and in woodland clearings; it also occurs on old lawns and parks and in some well-managed (without agri chemicals) churchyards.
The Scarlet Waxcap fruits from late summer to early winter, and is often confused with Hygrocybe punicea, the Crimson Waxcap, which is typically larger, has a darker red cap and is much less common.
Distribution
In Britain and Ireland Scarlet Waxcaps are an infrequent find, as indeed most waxcaps are; however, they are generally more common than other red Hygrocybe species. Hygrocybe coccinea occurs throughout mainland Europe, from Scandinavia right down to the southern coast of the Iberian Peninsula; it is also found in many parts of North America, where it is mainly a woodland species.
Rarely do Scarlet Waxcaps appear as singletons. On lawns with plenty of moss and a history of good (low nutrient input) management, large groups of these Tellytubby Toadstools are often scattered randomly with quite often a sprinkling of other Hygrocybe, Entoloma and Clavaria fungi, creating a colourful carpet that seems to say 'keep on the grass... but please don't squash the mushrooms'.
Taxonomic history
Originally described in 1762 by Jacob Christian Schaeffer, who named it Agaricus coccineus, the Scarlet Waxcap was relocated to its present genus in 1871 by the famous German mycologist Paul Kummer. (Prior to Kummer's work the vast majority of gilled fungi were simply recorded as Agaricus species.)
Synonyms of Hygrocybe coccinea include Agaricus coccineus Schaeff., and Hygrophorus coccineus (Schaeff.) Fr.
Etymology
The genus Hygrocybe is so named because fungi in this group are always very moist. Hygrocybe means 'watery head'. As is the case with the food colouring 'cochineal', the specific epithet coccinea means 'bright red', and the fresh young mushrooms shown on the left provide all the evidence needed to justify this description.
Culinary Notes
On a Europe-wide scale waxcap fungi are now quite rare, and so although in western Britain many of the acid-soil species are still plentiful most mycologists deplore the suggestion of these lovely fungi being gathered to eat. In any case most waxcaps are insubstantial and it is uncertain whether they are safe to eat. The Scarlet Waxcap is generally regarded as edible.
Identification guide
Cap
2 to 5cm in diameter, the cap convex at first, becoming bell shaped and eventually flat, often with a slightly depressed and occasionally shallowly umbonate centre. Initially the cap colour is blood red, but as the fruitbody matures its cap fades slowly through orange to yellowish from the edge. Although they tend to be slimy when young, the caps of Hygrocybe coccinea are not usually viscid when fully expanded.
A hand lens reveals that the surface of young caps is covered in tiny nodules; this surface texture may be less evident or absent when the caps are fully expanded.
The cap flesh is orange.
Gills
Reddish orange at first but with yellowish edges, the gills become a yellower orange as the fruitbody ages but they retain the pale yellowish edges; weakly adnexed or almost free; moderately crowded compared with the distant gills of Hygrocybe punicea, a larger waxcap with which this species is sometimes confused.
Stem
Usually red near the apex, although often a little paler than the cap, becoming progressively more orange and then yellow towards the base. Level, with no stem ring; pale orange stem flesh; 5 to 8mm diameter and 3 to 6cm tall.
Spores
Ellipsoidal to almond-shaped, sometimes with a slight central constriction; smooth, 9-11 x 5.5-77μm; inamyloid.
Spore print
White.
Odour/taste
Not distinctive.
Habitat & Ecological role
This wild mushroom occurs in woodland clearings and closely cropped or mown grassland where artificial fertilisers and selective weedkillers are not spread.
Waxcaps have long been considered to be saprobic on the dead roots of grasses and other grassland plants, but it is now considered likely that there is some kind of mutual relationship between waxcaps and mosses.
Season
September to November in Britain and Ireland.
Similar species
Hygrocybe punicea, the Crimson Waxcap, is typically larger, has a darker red cap and more fibrous stem; it is much less common that the Scarlet Waxcap.
Hygrocybe conica has a more pointed cap and yellow stem flesh; it turns black rapidly with age or when cut.