Leccinum versipelle

Birch Rotkappe ( leccinum versipelle )

The Birch Rotkappe ( leccinum versipelle, syn. Leccinum testaceoscabrum nom. Nud. ), Also known as heath - Rotkappe or Schwarzschuppige Rotkappe, is a species of fungus in the family Dickröhrlingsverwandten.

Features

The " woman mushrooms " as the Rotkappe is in Bavaria also called, can be more than 20 cm high. The cap diameter varies 6-20 cm and has a brick -like color, ranging from yellow-orange to reddish brown. When young it is barely wider than the stem, but then spreads out flat - convex. The hat skin is feinfilzig and dry, only after long periods of rain it is greasy and sticky. She reaches the edge significantly higher than on the tube cushion. The tubes are young yellowish or greyish and bright at the age of something. The stem is whitish and filled with the typical for the genus black-brown scales. The flesh is whitish, but runs after gating on grauviolettlich, at the stem base rather greenish blue. It is, after some time all black. The smell and taste are pleasant. The spores are oblong - fusiform, measuring 12-16 x 4-5 microns, and are brownish.

Artabgrenzung

The birch bolete can be confused with any Toadstool, more than with other edible boletes. Especially similar are the Espenrotkappe (L. leucopodium ) and the Eichenrotkappe (L. aurantiacum ). The birch bolete differs from them by the violet -gray discoloration of the meat at the gate. In the two species referred to the flesh color into red, before it is completely black.

Ecology and phenology

The birch bolete is a mycorrhizal fungus. It occurs in association with birch trees, especially white birch (Betula pendula), June-October before. She prefers heath -like landscapes with birch trees and moss-covered or overgrown with heather acidic soils ( loam Sand-/sandiger ). In coniferous forests it is in younger spruce and pine forests before with scattered birches. The birches are usually not older than 25 years. If - as in 2004 - early in the year a favorable, humid summer climate one, it comes to short term mass occurrence. Later grow - despite continued favorable conditions - only sporadically Birkenrotkappen. If a wet weather in the early summer or summer from growing the birch bolete in such years a total of only sparse. That is why in many mushroom books and an alleged decline in Heiderotkappe complain - this is certainly looking to past dry summer.

Importance

Feed value

Their flesh is like that of birch mushrooms when cutting and cooking gray to black. For this reason, this mushroom is not eaten by some, even though he is otherwise an excellent edible mushroom. This discoloration reduces the feed value in any way. In contrast to the birch fungus, the Rotkappe also has the advantage that it is rarely infested by maggots. The birch bolete is - like many other fungi also - raw toxic. Some fungal leaders recommend a minimum cooking time of 15 min. The fungus should lose its bite strength while cooking. Chance occur intolerances.

Children's book

Certain fame the Rotkappe in the children's book by the New Robber Hotzenplotz by Otfried Preußler. There Punch and Seppel dizzy from the robber Hotzenplotz, he would take Rotkappen eaten poisonous mushrooms bang that will tear him apart from within. Hotzenplotz will have to deal with the anxiety and can be to tie up your belly with ropes of Punch and Seppel. Before he realized it, they tie him up there on the armchair in which he sits. A little later comes police sergeant Dimpfelmoser and arrests him.