Mushrooms are a special kingdom that is represented by a wide variety of species, both edible and poisonous. Therefore, before you collect this product, you should make sure that it is safe. Will consider types of flakes, fairly common mushrooms that can be both healthy and tasty, and completely inedible.
Botanical description
Scale or folio called the species of fungi, which belongs to the family Strofariyevyh. The fruit body of the fungus is 5-11 cm in size. It consists of plates that are adherent or decaying, frequent. Their color varies: sometimes yellow, rusty, brown.
The mushroom has a hemispherical or bell-shaped cap, which can open and become more convex. Peel most often has a yellow, brown or red color. Top mushroom dry or slightly mucous. It may have thick scales. Scaly skin is characterized by fleshy, bitter pulp. 
The foot is 7–13 cm tall, centered or eccentric. It is wrapped in a fibrous ring, which disappears after the fungus grows. On top of the cap, in most species, scales are visible, which over time can fall off.
Distribution and habitat
Scaly flakes are found in China, Russia, Japan, Europe, Australia, North America.
Mushrooms of this genus grow in groups in dead wood or deciduous forests, on the ground and in trees.
Chemical composition
Flake mushrooms contain phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, iron, sodium, vitamins C, E, B1, B2, PP. They contain many fatty acids, monosaccharides, disaccharides, dietary fiber.
Energy value and calorie
Scaly mushrooms are considered low-calorie, as in 100 grams of the product is only 22 kcal. Proteins make 2.2 grams (9 kcal), fats - 1.2 grams (11 kcal), carbohydrates - 0.5 grams (2 kcal). As a percentage, it is 40% protein, 49% fat, 9% carbohydrate.
Important! Before eating folio, make sure that this type of mushroom is edible and that you are not allergic to this product.
Beneficial features
- Phlegm, which is located on the fruit bodies, is useful to people. It restores energy, improves brain function.
- According to mycologists, with the help of the pulp of these mushrooms, it is possible to improve the immune system, replenish the missing reserves of amino acids.
- The pulp contains iron and magnesium, which improve blood circulation, accelerate the work of nerve impulses, help to synthesize protein better.
- Folios have antibacterial, antifungal effects.
- With the help of squarrosidine in the foliota, you can avoid bouts of pain when gout.
- Scientists have created drugs that contain folio. They are used to treat cancer.
No less useful are such mushrooms as shiitake mushrooms, Reishi mushrooms, white podgruzoviki, pigs, cep, boletus, milk mushrooms, boletus, chanterelles, boletus mushrooms, aspen mushrooms and champignons.
Use in traditional medicine
In the folio of people prepare a healing broth and tincture. With their help, they treat cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis, arterial hypertension, varicose veins, thrombophlebitis.
With the help of magnesium and iron in the composition of the fungus, hemoglobin can be increased to cure anemia, diseases that affect the thyroid gland. 
Cellulose and pulp folio relieve constipation. Therefore, the popular use of flake decoction is popular among these people.
Coping with such a problem as constipation will also help: dodder, beet leaves, gentian, chard, sage, raisins, chamomile and pelargonium.
Scale Types
At the moment, mycologists have found 140 species of folios. Consider the most common.
Thick (adiposa)
Thick folio has a round-convex, dense, thick cap with a shiny and sticky surface. White-yellow soft part has plates that grow to the leg. They are yellow-brown in color. A light-brown powder stands out from the spores. Mushroom stem yellow, scaly.
Adiposa grows in deciduous forest on ash, elm and birch trees from July to October. Mushrooms can be very easily plucked with your hands without using a knife. 
Thick scales can be eaten pickled, salted, fresh. Without treatment, it has a bitter taste.
Important! If you suddenly get hurt in the woods, you can attach a mushroom to the site of a bruise or a small wound, which will disinfect the affected place.
Alder (alnicola)
Alder-type flakes have many small scales that cover the cap and stem of the fungus. The cap is very narrow and convex, with mucus, lemon-colored, in the center - brown. The leg can reach 13 cm in height. Spores are spread in brown powder color.
Such flakes have a predisposition to parasitism - they can destroy trees and wooden structures. They can not be eaten. 
Saffron-red (astragalina)
A saffron-red hat is in the form of a cone or bell. In color, it is orange, yellow, pink or apricot. These folio smooth, sticky, slimy, moist. Their plates are yellow. Height reaches 12 cm.
The smell is not observed. This mushroom tastes bitter. It is not eaten, although it is not considered poisonous. 
Grows in the USA, Europe, Siberia. It lives on peatlands.
Golden (aurivella)
They are also called royal honey mushrooms (willows). These mushrooms are colored bright yellow or golden. They have big hats; the scales on them are red. They mainly grow on trees (birch, willow, alder, spruce).
Did you know? Some mushrooms have the ability to shine (phosphoresce) due to special chemical reactions.
Golden scales can be eaten after heat treatment - it has a pronounced bitter taste, but after boiling it disappears. 
Fire (flammans)
Fire mushroom can be orange, red, pink. It is small (about 7 cm in diameter) and has the shape of a cone or ball. The surface is covered with mucus. Most often grows on dead conifers.
It is considered not fit for use - it is too bitter. If you break off a piece of the leg, you can smell the earth. 
Yellowing (flavida)
Fluvida has a small bell-shaped cap with curved edges. Color - gray-yellow. It has a yellow flesh with a delicate flavor, but an unpleasant aroma. Plates are cloves shaped; they are thin, thick, brown. The legs have annular thickening of red color.
Flavida can be seen on pine stumps growing in small groups. Most of all, it appears at the beginning of autumn. It can not be.
It will be helpful for you to find out which mushrooms are edible.
Gummy (gummosa)
Gummy species has a greenish-yellow color. Its top is convex, tuberculate with a thin leg. The surface has scales on itself, but soon they disappear, in their place mucus appears. Height is a maximum of 8 cm. Gummos is very fertile. Her body is odorless. 
Mushrooms appear in August, grow until mid-autumn. Mature on the stumps of old trees.
Gummos considered conditionally edible. People can eat it by boiling in boiling water.
Caring - cinder (highlandensis)
Garevuyu can be distinguished by an open hat with a diameter of 6 cm. Painted in brown. During the slush, the upper part of the fungus becomes sticky. Waves are visible along the edges; a truncated hillock is visible in the middle of the top. Plates are rare, gray outflow. In height the mushroom grows up to 6 cm.
The cinder flake is characterized by a thick, dense flesh of a pale yellow hue. Tasteless and odorless.
It is found in August on the site of fires and on burnt trees. The mode of reproduction of the fungus has not been investigated. He is not eaten. 
Clay yellow - adhesive (lenta)
Gummy scales are distinguished by ripening in late autumn or even in winter on the ground, distant from trees and bushes. It can be added to food. It is very wet and with mucus, so it has the name "soplyushka." Juveniles have scales.
Characterized by short stature and a small hat of ocher color. The plates are thick and pale, covered with cobwebs. The sticky flake has a thin, curved, fleshy leg.
Did you know? Mushrooms, like people, can produce vitamin D and, accordingly, sunbathe with sufficient light. In this regard, they change the color of the caps.
It can be eaten, but it is all covered with mucus, therefore it is extremely unattractive. Has no smell, taste bitter. 
Wood (lignicola)
Wood flakes usually grows on birch firs. May exist in groups or independently. It is even found in the mountains, at the end of summer or at the beginning of autumn.
It has a brown-gold ebb, medium high (9 cm). The cap is semicircular, covered with curved scales, as is the leg, usually not moist.
This flake is considered conditionally edible and is not eaten. However, some mushroom pickers claim that it is tasty and with a pleasant smell. However, since this species is very rare and is listed in the Red Book, in any case it is better to refrain from collecting. 
Edible - Hint (nameko)
Hintingly resembles honey agarics, reaches a height of 5 cm. Growing, they form large nests. They are completely covered with very slippery mucus and painted in red, orange or brown. The fungus lives in very wet conditions on the stumps or fallen tree trunks.
Did you know? In Japanese, "hint" means "slippery mushroom."
They are grown in China and Japan, where they make national miso soup from a hint. 
Destructive - poplar (destruens)
This scale can be found on the stumps or trunks of poplars. Named "destructive" because it damages a tree. It has a round shape, yellow color, flattened hat with large scales. It is characterized by white flesh. Very low (about 3 cm). It is considered inedible, mainly due to the bitter taste. 
Borova (spumosa)
Borovaya has a spherical cap 3 cm in diameter, reddish or yellow, slightly sticky. Leg low (about 5 cm), curved. The plates are yellowish, darken with age. The fungus is not characterized by a special smell.
Occurs in a pine forest on the stumps, near the roots of trees in the fall. It is used in raw or pickled form, although it is considered edible only conditionally. 
Ordinary (squarrosa typus)
It has a large convex cap (15 cm), brown-yellow, with rounded scales and a dry surface. The height is also about 15 cm. Has no pronounced smell, has an earthy taste. Refers to conditionally edible type.
How to cook: cooking
The most delicious edible folios are called gold, ordinary and gum-bearing - their flesh has a normal smell and a typical mushroom taste, comparable to the taste of honey agaric.
There are many ways to make flakes. They can be used as an ingredient in the soup, in the main course, in salty pastries, sauce, salad. Also folio fried, pickled, pickled. Traditionally they are not dried.
Most doctors do not recommend eating mushrooms without heat treatment, because it will cause dyspepsia. It is best to rinse and boil the product to prevent indigestion. The product prepared in this way is eaten without decoction. 
We recommend you read about pickling, drying and freezing mushrooms.
The body of the foliota is completely usable, but for hot dishes it is better to use caps, and for pickles and marinades - the whole mushroom.
Harm: contraindications
Among the scales there are no truly poisonous and dangerous for humans species, however, there are few edible ones. Folios can cause harm in cases where:
- they belong to inedible form;
- they were collected in a landfill area, near roads, factories;
- they are overripe or wormy;
- a person is allergic to mushrooms;
- a person is sick with gastritis, pancreatitis, cholecystitis;
- a woman is pregnant or breastfeeding a baby;
- having eaten a scaly skin, you will drink it with alcohol.
You should also not give these mushrooms to young children.Did you know? In forests, where the diversity of plants is small, squirrels eat flakes. These mushrooms are a good substitute for cedar nuts.
If you do not follow the rules of eating mushrooms, it can happen:
- intoxication;
- redness of the face;
- noise in ears;
- nausea and vomiting;
- abdominal pain;
- temperature rise;
- increased heart rate;
- difficulty breathing;
- the occurrence of panic, hallucinations.
In severe cases, hearing or vision may disappear, a coma occurs.Flake: mushroom twins
The summer mushrooms are doubles of boron scales. The only difference is the area in which the mushrooms grow, and the color of their plates.
Find out what honey mushrooms are useful for, also read what edible and inedible mushrooms are.
Similar to the golden folio is considered ordinary (fleecy). It has a difference in color, as it is painted in a bright lemon color and there are less scales on it than on an ordinary one. Golden foliota similar to the fiery, inedible. Therefore, you need to be very careful when choosing mushrooms for food.
So, we made sure that the scales are very diverse in shape, size and taste. Due to the presence of amino acids and vitamins, they are recommended to be included in the diet to improve health. But great care should be taken when harvesting, so that all the mushrooms subsequently become edible and tasty.
