You might be surprised, but the art of collecting mushrooms is a real science. It is important not only to know where and when it is possible to collect them, but also to be able to distinguish edible mushrooms from inedible and poisonous ones, as the latter are able to mask themselves very well. Ignorance of the basics of mushroom mastery can turn into tragedy. Let's explore the main types of mushrooms that grow in the Saratov region, as well as with the rules of their search and mushroom places.
Edible Mushrooms
Edible mushrooms are edible. There are several thousand of them known, in the Saratov region grow the following:
- whites;
- saffron milk;
- real milkcakes
- black browsers;
- boletus;
- champignons and umbrellas;
- aspen birds;
- loading;
- chanterelles;
- russula;
- honey agaric;
- rows.
White mushrooms
White mushroom (white, boletus, in Latin Bolétus edúlis) prefers to grow near spruce, pine, oak, birch on moss or lichen cover, sandy, sandy, loamy soil. It grows on all continents except Australia. His cap can reach 50 cm in girth, and the leg - 10 cm in width and 25 cm in height. 
Hat There are different variants of brown color - from the darkest to the lightest. It is dome-shaped in shape, but with age the fungus changes shape to a flatter one. Skin on the bonnet may be even, slightly shriveled or cracked, in conditions of high humidity the mucous to the touch, but should not lag behind the pulp.
Learn about the various methods of harvesting porcini mushrooms for the winter, how to freeze properly, than white mushrooms are useful.
Pulp dense, thick, milky color, with age can become more friable and yellowish, if broken, it will not change color. In its raw form, it smells subtle, but during cooking, the aromas are carried throughout the house.
Under the pulp is a tubular layer up to 4 cm thick. Depending on the age of the fungus, the color varies from white to pale yellow or slightly olive.
The leg is thick, resembles a barrel in shape, and in old mushrooms it is a cylinder. The color is slightly lighter than the cap, has a mesh pattern. 
The most fruitful time for a boletus is the end of August, but it can be collected from the middle of summer until the end of September, and in a warm autumn - in October.
Did you know? The largest white fungus weighing 140 kg and 2 m in diameter was torn off in 1985 in Wisconsin (USA).
In Italy, boletus is eaten raw, it is appreciated after any form of cooking, as it spreads a very appetizing flavor and does not darken when cooked.
Types of cooking boletus:
- drying - while the flavor is most revealed;
- roasting;
- boiling;
- extinguishing;
- freezing;
- pickling.
It can be added to main dishes and side dishes, sauces, soups, to make stuffing for pies, pancakes, dumplings. The benefits of its use are manifested in the stimulation of digestion and good protein digestibility.
Milk
This group combines several types of mushrooms with similar characteristics, but only one (real) is considered edible, the rest are conditionally edible.
A real brute (wet, white, pravsky, raw, Lactárius résimus) grows near birches, pines, limes in large clusters. Grows in the period from the middle of the summer to the beginning of the autumn.
Learn how to collect and harvest aspen, black sink, how to harvest milk mushrooms for the winter.
Hat up to 20 cm in circumference, young mushrooms flat, then takes the form of a funnel, the edges are wrapped inward, covered with slippery white skin, a light yellow tint and reddish spots are possible. 
Pulp elastic, emits a mushroom smell, expires with juice similar to milk, but with a sharp taste that wears and becomes dirty yellow.
Leg may have a height of up to 7 cm and a girth up to 5 cm, smooth, empty in the middle, the color is the same as that of a cap.
In European countries, milk mushrooms are considered inedible mushrooms, in our country they prefer to pickle and marinate. Some species are dried, ground and used as a spicy seasoning.
Colorful umbrellas
The umbrella is variegated (macrolepiota, mushroom umbrella, Macrolepiota procera) named after the umbrella with which it has similarities. This mushroom is a relative of champignon, its hat first looks like a dome, then opens and takes the shape of a bell, looks like an umbrella in mature mushrooms, and there is a small mound in the middle. 
It is gray-brown in color, covered with raised scales of a darker shade (because of this, the mushroom seems to be disheveled), the mound is dark. The diameter of the cap can reach 30 cm.
Pulp white in color, consists of fine fibers, has a strong mushroom aroma, so that in European, Asian and African countries are sold at high prices. Only the pulp of young mushrooms is eaten there, since it becomes hard in mature ones. Bottom of the flesh is covered with soft white plates.
Leg thin, up to 50 cm high, covered with scales, a “skirt” grows under the bonnet.
Umbrellas are collected from mid-summer to mid-autumn in rarely planted forests. They eat mostly fried. 
Chanterelles
Chanterelles (Cantharéllus) - these are mushrooms growing near coniferous and deciduous trees, mainly on the ground, sometimes on moss.
Includes these types:
- velvety chanterelle (rare species);
- faceted;
- odorous;
- common (real chanterelle, cockerel);
- yellowing;
- false (inedible);
- gray
- tubular;
- funnel horn-shaped (black).
It will be useful for you to learn how to distinguish a false chanterelle from a real chanterelle, how to pickle chanterelles, how to freeze chanterelles, how to treat chanterelles.
Chanterelles grow on the legs, which gradually turn into a cap without a pronounced transition. The flesh is dense, white or yellow, the leg and cap are thick, the mushrooms themselves are low, often branching out. The bottom of the cap is folded. 
Most often, the mushrooms are colored bright yellow, folds of a lighter shade, some types of gray or black.
Chanterelles grow in mid-summer and can continue to grow until mid-autumn. They are almost never wormy.
They are usually fried, boiled, dried, canned.
Maslata
Maslyata (Suillus) grow near coniferous trees from early summer to mid-autumn and include about 50 species. Hat they are dome-shaped or flat, the skin is smooth, sticky, dark, easily removed from the flesh of a yellow color.
Learn what boilers are useful and harmful for, how to distinguish false boars, how to quickly clean the boars without a knife, what are the ways to prepare boilers for the winter, how tasty to cook pickled boars for the winter.
When cut, the flesh may become reddish or bluish, it is tubular below. The leg is smooth or slightly rough, low, there may be a ring under the cap. 
Butters are fried, boiled, salted, pickled, added to soups, sauces, side dishes, less often - dried.
Autumn mushrooms
Autumn mushrooms (real, Armillaria mellea) collected from late August to early December. The best places to find them are wet deciduous groves, ravines, stumps.
Their hat grows up to 10 cm in the girth, less often - up to 17 cm, it is dome-shaped, gradually opening up. The older the mushroom, the flatter its cap will be.
The color of the skin on the caps is yellow-brown or light brown with a slight admixture of green, darker in the middle. Along the edges grow cream-colored scales, which may not be the old mushrooms. 
The flesh is first fleshy, light, then becomes thinner, stiffer, smells nice, lamellar from below.
The leg is thin, up to 10 cm tall, brown, at the bonnet of a light shade, closer to the ground - dark, with plates, near the bonnet there is a film in a circle. In overripe mushrooms, the stem taste is tough and breaks down into fibers.
Important! 100 g of honeydew contains the daily rate of copper and zinc.Mushrooms marinate, salt, fry, boil. In Western countries, they are not popular, sometimes considered poisonous.
Learn about the beneficial properties of honey mushrooms, how to freeze honey mushrooms for the winter, how to pickle, how to pickle, how to cook caviar from honey agaric.
Meadow honey agaric
Meadow agaric honey (meadows, meadow negnuchchiki, cloves, meadow marasmius, Marasmius oreades) collected from the end of the spring period to the middle of the autumn, mainly in the grass - in the meadows, in ravines, near roads, in garden plots. They grow in large families. 
Hat dome-shaped at first, then becomes flat, in very old mushrooms the edges are bent upwards, in the center there is a dark mound. Its girth reaches 5 cm, less often - 8 cm. The edges of the cap are translucent, slightly toothed. Skin yellowish brown, may be sticky. Pulp subtle, has a light clove or almond flavor. Below the cap is covered with plates.
Leg can be up to 10 cm tall and 5 mm in girth. It tastes hard and becomes hard with age. The color of the legs may not be as intense as that of the cap.
In cooking, usually only caps are used - they are pickled, salted, fried, boiled. Legs edible, but tough.
Brownberries
Brownberry seedlings ( Leccinum) there are several types that differ in dry skin color, from gray-brown to dark brown. 
Their cap is dome-shaped, the flesh is white, soft, its diameter can be up to 15 cm. The flesh is white in color, the bottom is covered with threadlike fibers that darken with the age of the fungus, it tastes soft, juicy. When breaking it does not change color (except for pinking podberzovik). The taste and smell are neutral.
The leg is thin (in the black and harsh species is barrel-shaped), it can be up to 12 cm in length, light gray in color, scaly, fibrous in taste.
The season for their collection comes in June and ends in October. Brownberries grow near deciduous trees, more often - near birches. They can be dried, cooked, fried, pickled.
Did you know? Residents of the tundra and forest-tundra zones, where brown birch grow near dwarf birch trees, jokingly call them "over-birch".
Aspen mushrooms
Aspen mushrooms are of such species:
- Red (redhead, krasik, krasyuk, red mushroom, aspenik, dye, Leccinum aurantíacum) - with a red hat.
- Yellow-brown (red-brown, small leather, Leccinum versipélle) - with a hat of yellow-brown color.
- White (Aspen white, Leccinum percandidum) - with a white hat.
- Painted (Hárrya chrómapes) - with a hat of light pink color and a leg at the top of a light pink, at the bottom - of a yellow color.
They differ from browns by more elastic flesh and a larger diameter leg.
Find out what types of orange-cap boletus exist, what a red boletus mushroom looks like, how to distinguish a false boletus.
The cap grows up to 15 cm in diameter, less often - up to 30 cm. In young mushrooms it is spherical, adjacent to the pedicle, becomes dome-shaped with age.
The flesh of young mushrooms is strong, the overripe is softer, the color is white, it breaks dark when cracked. 
At the bottom of the cap it is covered with villi-tubules up to 3 cm in length, between which pores are formed. The older the fungus, the darker the color of this layer.
The leg can reach 15 cm in length and 5 cm in girth, white color, scaly. It has a cylindrical shape, may have a larger diameter closer to the ground. In contrast to the browndockers, there is no barrel-shaped. The taste felt soft fibers.
The flavor of the fungus is weak, the taste is neutral, in the process of cooking blackens. It can be fried, marinated, dried, boiled, salted.
It should be searched near young deciduous trees, more often - near aspen and poplar, from the beginning of the summer period to the middle of the autumn. 
Loadings
Sub-loads are:
- whites;
- black
- blackening.
In fact, these mushrooms are not related to milk mushrooms, although outwardly they are more similar to them, but to russula. They grow mainly near oak, pine, aspen, spruce, birch, beech, and alder. Collect them from mid-summer to mid-autumn. Podgazdki have a good taste in salted form.
Difference podgruzdka white (wet dry, Rússula délica) from the load is as follows:
- in dry and non-fleecy leather on the cap;
- in thin white plates with a light blue tint;
- in the absence of white juice;
- in the absence of a sharp taste in the pulp without plates.
Hat white under the shape and color resembles a pile, it also has the shape of a funnel of white color with dark markings. In the girth cap can reach 18 cm. Pulp without plates tasteless, the plates taste sharp.
Leg the fungus, like that of a bummer, is white, cylindrical, empty inside.
Black loadings (Rússula adústa) are distinguished by the absence of white juice and a sharp taste, on the contrary, the flesh has a sweetish taste. If you break a mushroom, the pulp will turn red, later it will darken, black spots appear from pressure. The mushroom smells like mold.
The shape of the cap is the same as that of the skin; the skin color is gray-green (the longer the fungus grows, the darker the tint), it is sticky to the touch.
Blackening underloads (Rússula nígricans) with age they change the color of the cap: in young mushrooms it is light gray, then brown, in overripe mushrooms it is black. 
The shape of the cap resembles a spoon.
The flesh is white in color, it turns red on the break, then it turns black. It smells like fruit, it tastes spicy.
The leg also changes color from white to black, its taste is sweet.
Podgazdki especially tasty in salty form.
Ryzhiki
Ryzhik (elovik, Lactarius) is one of the most valuable mushrooms, as it contains vitamins A, B, C, amino acids and other beneficial substances, there are several types. Its name is obliged to orange color.
Its cap can grow up to 18 cm in diameter, in young mushrooms it is dome-shaped with a mound in the center. 
Gradually, it turns out and takes the form of a funnel with upward curved edges. The roughness of the skin is missing, it may be sticky. Old fungi skin can darken. The plates are located on the bottom of the cap.
Leg grows in the shape of a cylinder with emptiness inside, the color is the same as that of a cap. In height it grows up to 7 cm, in girth - up to 2 cm.
Pulp orange, when cut darkens, smells of fruit, tasty, the juice stands out a rich orange color, which quickly darkens.
It grows near pines and spruce in the grass or on moss from mid-summer to mid-autumn.
Huskies are tasty, if salted or pickled, with this treatment their color becomes greenish. You can also eat raw. 
Rowing
Rowing (tricholom, Tricholoma) includes more than 90 species of fungi, including poisonous. Hats at the rows can be round, flat or slightly resemble a funnel. They can be up to 10 cm in size, less often up to 15 cm. Records grow below.
Find out how they look and whether there is a poplar line, gray line, purple row, white row, green row, earthy row, yellow-yellow row.
Colour the skin can be red, brown, greenish, gray, etc., depending on the species. Skin may be dry or sticky.
Leg it can be up to 10 cm tall and up to 2 cm in girth; it can be white or of the same color as the cap. The taste is fibrous.
Pulp may be tasteless, burning, slightly bitter, mealy to the taste. It is thin or thick, white or yellow, odorless or with a mealy flavor. 
Ridovki grow everywhere - in deciduous groves and coniferous forests, in ravines, on forest edges, in clearings. Some species are selective and prefer deciduous trees, in particular - birch, or, conversely, - coniferous (pine). Gather ryadovki from the beginning of the summer to mid-autumn.
In cooking, the ranks are not appreciated, as they taste bitter or tasteless, but in the fried, salted and pickled form, their taste becomes better.
Russula
From 275 types of russula (Roussula) 60 are found on the territory of Russia in deciduous and coniferous forests in summer and autumn. They all differ in skin color, which can be easily separated from the pulp.
The pulp is lamellar, brittle, in some species changes color when in contact with air, the taste is soft, bitter or sharp. 
Hats young mushrooms can be in the form of a ball, then gradually straightened, covered with plates from below. The diameter can reach 5 cm, sometimes - 10 cm, in some - 30 cm.
Legs tapering or expanding downwards, may be empty in the middle, white in color or the same as the cap. The height of the leg reaches up to 8 cm.
To get rid of the bitterness, russula must first be boiled or soaked. After that, they are fried, salted, pickled.
Poisonous and conditionally edible mushrooms
Mushrooms are called poisonous, containing dangerous substances that cause food poisoning, affect the nervous system or cause death. 
These include such mushrooms:
- pale grebe is the most toxic;
- fly agaric;
- govorushka;
- spider web;
- gallery;
- line;
- fibrin;
- lepiota;
- false honeycomb;
- false white mushroom;
- satanic mushroom;
- fine pig and others (about 150 species).
Conditionally edible are mushrooms that have an unpleasant taste or lead to poisoning in unprepared form, and after cooking become edible:
- milk mushrooms besides the present;
- Wash;
- valui;
- Duboviki;
- whitefish;
- mokruhi;
- raincoats;
- gray-pink amanitas.
Most often they eat milk mushrooms, waggons and walui.
Death cap
Death cap (Amanita phalloides) - the most dangerous mushroom on the planet. Its cap may be up to 15 cm in size, may be round or flattened, its skin color is off-white, with a greenish or grayish tinge. Below the cap is covered with soft plates. The flesh is white, thick, smells cloyingly sweet, the smell is weak.
The leg can be up to 16 cm tall and up to 2.5 cm in girth, has the shape of a cylinder, is painted white or cap color, it happens with a wavy pattern. Bottom leg thicker than the top, wrapped in a "handbag" in white.
Растёт на плодородном грунте в светлых лесах с конца июля до конца осени, предпочитает места возле лиственных деревьев, распространена хорошо. 
Signs of intoxication appear when people no longer associate them with mushroom poisoning, after 6, it happens that after 48 hours. A day later, the signs disappear, but intoxication continues. A lull can last up to 4 days, then everything returns with a new force.
By the time a person seeks medical help, damage to the liver and kidneys may be irreversible. You can get poisoned even with a small piece of this mushroom.
Important! The main signs of the difference between the pale toadstool and edible mushrooms are white plates, the presence of a film under the cap and rings, and a non-fleshy fleshy flesh.
Wolf
Wolves come in:
- Whites (white, Lactárius pubéscens) - the skin is painted white, in the middle the cap may be dark.
- Pink (volvyanitsa, rubella, volnyanka, broth, volminka, volzhanka, dyeing, volvenka, wave, Lactárius torminósus) - the skin is painted in a light pink color.
The size of the cap is 8-12 cm; in young mushrooms it is flat-convex; in old ones it forms a small funnel; the edges of the pink wave are lowered down. Below the cap is covered with plates.
The flesh is thick, white with a light aroma and a sharp taste. White wipe has a fragile flesh, pink has no. A white juice, like milk, is released from the pulp when crushed.
The stem is up to 6 cm tall and up to 2 cm in the girth, in the shape of a cylinder, of the same shade as the bonnet, strong, and in old mushrooms there is a void inside.
Search should be near the birches in August and September. Eat them in salted and pickled form.
Valui
Valuy (pig, Kubur, podtopolnik, bull, cowshed, tiller, plakun mushroom, cam, whitefish, Rússula foétens) grows in coniferous and deciduous forests from mid-summer to mid-autumn. 
The cap can reach a size of 15 cm. The skin is yellow-brown or yellow, along the edges of the grooves, it is easily lagging behind the pulp, covered with mucus. In small mushrooms, the edges of the cap adjoin the stem, forming a ball, then the edges rise. Below are the dingy shade of the plate.
The flesh is fragile, white in color, when breaking it darkens. Her taste is bitter, the smell is reminiscent of spoiled butter.
The leg can be in the form of a cylinder or a barrel, up to 12 cm in height and up to 3 cm in girth, the color is white with dark spots. By old age, emptiness appears inside.
They eat walui salted or pickled, but first remove the bitterness by steeping.
Skripitsa
Skripitsa (felt felt, euphorbia, dries, milk podskrebysh, Lactárius velléreus) often grows near birch, coniferous and deciduous trees in summer and early autumn. 
It looks like a pepper spoon, but the plates under the cap are located at a greater distance from each other.
The hat at the violin is resilient, in young mushrooms it is slightly convex, then the edges are bent, and the middle falls through, forming a funnel. The color of the skin is white, it is fleece to the touch. The diameter of the cap may be up to 26 cm. The color of the cap, pulp, plates and juice may darken slightly.
The flesh is white, elastic, brittle, when cracked from it follows a milky-colored juice with a very sharp taste and pitch smell.
The leg can be up to 8 cm tall and up to 5 cm in diameter, white in color, fleecy.
These mushrooms eat salty after a long soak. 
Mushroom spots in the Saratov region
Most mushrooms in the Saratov region can be collected in such places:
- Popovka village of the Saratov region (volnushki, milk mushrooms, brown-brooms).
- Village Yagodnaya Polyana Tatishchevsky district (chanterelles, mushrooms).
- The village of Alekseevka Baltaysky district (brownberry, boletus, aspen birds, autumn honey agarics).
- The village of Ozerki, Petrovsky district (boletus, boletus, milk mushrooms, aspen birds).
- The settlement of Ivanteevka, Krasnoarmeysky district (boletus mushrooms, brown grasses, milk mushrooms).
- Forest by the Tignes-Zinhes Lake of Engelsky District (milk mushrooms, aspen mushrooms).
- The village of Kamenka, Tatishchevsky district (boleta).
- Urban-type settlement Bazarny Karabulak, Bazarno-Karabulaksky District (podberezoviki).
- The village of Zvonaryovka of the Marksa District (white, aspen mushrooms, yellow mushrooms).
Did you know? No one knows when mushrooms appeared on Earth, but it is known that they grew up 400 million years ago, when dinosaurs did not exist yet.
Useful tips
To collect more edible mushrooms and not get poisoned, you need to adhere to the following rules:
- Get acquainted with the rules of mushroom picking, mushroom spots, photos of poisonous mushrooms, route.
- Get up early. Mushrooms are better seen when the sun does not gleam from the grass, and the dew on the caps glitters and draws attention to itself. In addition, the lack of heat and other mushroom pickers around can contribute to a good harvest. During the day you have to walk through the forest with your back to the sun
- Clothes and shoes should be weather-friendly and comfortable - to protect from parasites, not to hamper movement, not to rub, not get wet. Rubber boots help protect against snakes.
- In plastic bags, mushrooms are crumpled, crumbled and fogged, so it's best to take a basket with you. Put the mushrooms feet down.
- In order not to get lost, it is better not to go to an unfamiliar forest without people who are oriented there. Do not forget to charge the phone before going, you can take a compass and a navigator. In the forest, memorize landmarks.
- Take clean water with you and be sure to drink it so that dehydration does not occur.
- When you come to the forest, find a stick with which you can rake the foliage, so as not to bend down every time.
- The slightest doubt about the edibility of the fungus is a reason to leave it in the forest. The risk in such a case is an ignoble thing, mushroom poisoning is very hard to overcome.
- In order to not eat together with the mushrooms of various chemicals, do not take those specimens that grow near the roads, industrial areas and other places of sedimentation of toxic substances.
- Cut the mushroom and smell it: an unpleasant smell is basically a sign of a poisonous mushroom.
- No need to take dubious mushrooms with you to see information about them on the Internet at home. Poor quality photos and incident light may not reflect the color cast.
- Under your feet you should watch carefully, not only not to miss the mushrooms, but also not to stumble, not to fall, not to step on the snake.
- Mushrooms rarely grow alone, so look around well, if you find one, look for more.
- It is impossible to try raw mushrooms - some of them are poisonous in their raw form, and cooked ones become harmless.
- Do not destroy mushrooms that you will not take. Poisonous fungi also perform certain functions in the ecosystem.
- The fungus is not cut out of the ground, but is carefully unscrewed so as not to damage the mycelium and cause its rotting.
- For lamellar mushrooms, be sure to check the absence of a “bag” below and a “skirt” under the cap.
- Mushrooms need to be cleaned, washed and cooked as quickly as possible so as not to deteriorate.
Important! Old edible mushrooms can also be poisonous. The danger is also rotten and moldy.
It is difficult to find someone who would refuse to eat mushrooms. If you decide to collect them yourself, first study the topic well.
Thus, in the Saratov region you can harvest a large crop of tasty and healthy mushrooms, but you need to know where, when, and which ones you should look for. It is especially important to be able to distinguish edible mushrooms from poisonous ones, because poisoning can be detected only when it will be too late to do something to save life.
It is better to return from the forest without mushrooms, than to tempt fate by eating strangers, because many examples are known when even experienced mushroom pickers were mistaken.
