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Dung mushrooms, or coprinus, have been known for three centuries. During this time, they were classified as a separate genus, but researchers are still revising their conclusions regarding their edibility. Of the 25 species, the most popular are the common dung beetle, gray and white.
Collected at a young age, they are edible, can be beneficial, and, if prepared correctly, are a delicacy. It will be useful to study the properties and characteristics of each type before using it as food or as a medicine.
Where does the common dung beetle grow?
The places where mushrooms grow correspond to the name of their genus, since these representatives love well-manured soil, rich in humus and organic matter.
They are widespread in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. They can be found especially often after warm rains in vegetable gardens, fields, near roads, on garbage heaps, in short grass or forest litter. Common dung beetles most often grow alone or in small groups. The season begins in May and ends with the onset of frost in October.
What does the common dung beetle look like?
If you look at the photo, the common dung beetle has an appearance very different from its relatives.
Its gray cap with a brown crown, up to 3 cm in diameter, is elliptical or bell-shaped, with a white felt coating. It never fully opens or becomes flat. Its edges are uneven, torn, crack with age, and become dark. The plates at the bottom of the cap are located freely and often. Their color gradually changes from white-gray to yellow and later to black.
The white, fibrous stalk is up to 8 cm high and about 5 mm in diameter. It is cylindrical, hollow inside, widened towards the base.
The pulp of the mushroom is tender, fragile, without any special taste or smell, at first it is light, later it turns gray, and after autolysis (self-decomposition) it turns black and blurred.
Black spore powder.
Is it possible to eat dung beetle?
It is believed that the mushroom is edible at a young age, when the plates are white. The common dung beetle ages very quickly, it only takes a few hours, after which its appearance becomes rather unsightly.
Only the caps of young mushrooms, which have a delicate structure and a number of useful elements in their composition, can be eaten:
- vitamins;
- microelements – phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium;
- amino acids;
- coprine;
- fatty and organic acids;
- Sahara;
- fructose.
Similar species
The common dung beetle differs from its fellows in its size. Its stem is never higher than 10 cm and thicker than 5 mm, and its cap never opens completely.
It has no false poisonous counterparts, but the most similar to this species is the shimmering dung beetle, which also has an ovoid cap that never opens completely.
Its diameter is about 4 cm, the color is yellow, and there are grooves from the plates on the surface. It is called shimmering because of the shiny scales covering the surface of the cap. They can easily be washed away by rain. The plates of the fungus are initially light, and later, under the influence of autolysis, darken and decompose. Spore powder is brown or black. The leg is dense, white, hollow, without a ring. From spring to late autumn, mushrooms living in large colonies can be found on rotting trees (except conifers) and in litter.
Collection and use
You can eat the young fruiting bodies of the common dung beetle before the plates begin to stain. The collection is carried out from spring to autumn. After the mushrooms are delivered home, they must be urgently cooked.
Powder made from fruit bodies, previously cleaned and dried, is widely used. Before grinding, they are fried without oil in a frying pan. The finished powder is stored in glass containers. It can be used as a spice to give a dish a champignon flavor.
You can freeze fruit bodies only after boiling.
Conclusion
Common dung beetle is one of the types of fungi that are often found in urban environments and in other places associated with human activity. This variety is not of great culinary value; collecting the fruiting bodies is quite difficult, and caution is required. However, knowledge of the species broadens the horizons of the mushroom picker and gives him new interesting information about the diversity of representatives of the mushroom kingdom.
