The Hottest Mushroom In The Forest

[Music] greetings everyone i'm madame parrots and today i'm hanging out in the woods it's mid autumn and i'd love to introduce you to what many people believe to be is the hottest mushroom in the forest so what do I mean by the hottest mushroom in the forest well I mean the taste of this mushroom is excruciating ly hot it's peppery it's accurate it'll burn your tongue and it's quite unpalatable obviously but it's a beautiful mushroom and it's an ecologically important mushroom and it grows around the world in various parts of North America also in Europe so if you're watching this video there's a good chance that you will encounter this mushroom on at least one of your foraging excursions in your lifetime so if you're unfamiliar with this species then perhaps after watching this video you'll have a greater understanding of it so as you can see I'm gonna spruce forest right now and underneath me are humming key mats of sphagnum Moss it's a very water rich area in these kinds of habitats can be rich in fungal species and in fungal diversity so if you live in an area that has these particular ecosystems that look somewhat similar to this that have similar tree species and moss species and I encourage you to explore these areas especially in the autumn months even if it's been dry outside you can tend to find a lot of wild mushroom species in these particular habitats so what does what many people believe to be is the hottest mushroom in the forest look like tey go up with me and I'll show you [Music] [Music] okay so check out all of these mushrooms all these red capped mushrooms fruiting underneath the spruce tree there are literally dozens of them in this particular spot as you work your way around here as you continue down the line there's many more so I would say there's over 50 of these in this particular area which is a lot for this species so which mushroom is this that's considered to be the hottest mushroom in the forest well this mushroom is the appropriately titled red hot milk cap also known as the Rufus milk cap lactarius Rufus and Rufus means red now the lactarius genus is a large genus of fungi representing over 400 species worldwide and lactarius mushrooms are called lactarius mushrooms because they exude a latex whenever you scratch you bruise the gills on the underside of the cap now the lactarius genus used to be much larger but in recent years that genus has been split into 3 different genera all known as milky cap mushrooms so we have the multi Furka genus we have al act if Lewis genus then of course we have the lactarius genus now members within the lactarius genus have a predominantly temperate distribution and about 80% of all milk Cap mushrooms worldwide are in the lactarius genus now the Rufus milk cap or the red hot milk cap black tereus Rufus is an ecto mycorrhizal fungus just like other members of the lactarius genus so what does this mean well mycorrhizae literally means fungus root and this describes a mutualistic symbiotic interaction between plants and trees roots and certain types of soil fungi the fungi more specifically than my Celia of the fungi essentially act as extensions of the plants or trees root systems and supply the host with nutrition in the form of minerals like phosphorus and nitrogen the mycorrhizal fungi also can extract and supply to their hosts water from a volume of soil literally hundreds of thousands of times greater than the roots of the plants or trees alone can explore now there are many types of mycorrhizal fungi ecto my coryza being just one of them black tears Rufus the red-hot cap crows ecto mycorrhizal ii in association specifically with spruce trees that's where i almost always find the species but many people also report that this mushroom grows underneath other conifer trees as well so I strongly encourage you to learn tree identification specifically spruce tree identification because it's just one of those trees that has a lot of fungal associations in a previous video we talked about the value of learning oak trees when finding mushrooms well right up there on the list would be spruce trees so spruces belong to the genus picea and spruce trees if you're unfamiliar with them are evergreen conifer trees with needle-like leaves there are about 35 species worldwide and spruce trees although there are exceptions they typically inhabit boreal ecosystems montane and sub-alpine ecosystems in the northern hemisphere now the spruce tree that i'm finding all these Rufus milk cat mushrooms under is the Norway spruce picea abies this tree can grow up to 120 feet tall it's native to northern in Central Europe so it's not native here in Pennsylvania or in North America but it's widely planted in homesteads and in cemeteries and forest plantations and this particular area is a forest plantation this area was heavily farmed in the past and also heavily mined so a bunch of spruce trees were planted to rehabilitate this area and it seems that the spruces are doing a good job because I'm seeing a bunch of mycorrhizal fungi in this particular spot norway spruces can be easily identified by their large cones and also their drooping secondary branches that hang down in a pendulous fashion so let's turn our attention back towards the red hot milk cat mushroom so that we can positively identify it but we already did go over some key identifying features for example to mycorrhizal fungus so it's growing terrestrially typically underneath spruce trees but also other conifer trees it's got a reddish colored cap the stem matches the color of the cap when you look underneath the cap you will see gills that are closely spaced these gills are whitish or creamish at first add this mushroom ages these gills will turn a darker color almost the red or vinícius color and a key feature of these gills is that whenever you scratch them or bruise them white latex will be exuded this white latex is thick it stays white it does not turn any colors does not turn yellow and also this white latex does not discolor the gills okay so by now you're probably wondering when am I going to talk about the hot peppery sensation of the red hot milk cat mushroom well I'm going to talk about it now because it's another key feature of this mushroom you find a mushroom that looks like this and you go through all those other features but you taste it raw and it's not peppery it might not be this mushroom so this is a key feature for lactarius Rufus there are two ways to get this peppery sensation you could scratch the gills and within a couple seconds you should see a white latex being exerted you can safely taste that latex most people can safely taste that individual sensitivities always exist but I've tasted so many different lactarius mushrooms and I've been fine afterwards and so literally take your tongue and lick it and it might take a couple of seconds but it starts to build up and wow that is very very hot and I'm gonna take it a step further because you could also safely chew on the cap and you'll get the same sensation you definitely do not want to swallow raw you just want to taste it and it is hot it's really building up right now and of course spit it out okay so I got it out and I would agree that it's one of the hottest mushrooms in the forest I've tasted a lot of wild mushrooms ones that are hot many rustle of mushrooms many lactarius mushrooms a few mushrooms another general that are very very hot this is up there on the list so I would consider this to be one of the hottest mushrooms in the forest it's difficult to say it is the hottest because there probably many that I haven't tried yet but it's up there on the list so it definitely deserves that title red hot milk cat mushroom now where does this peppery sensation come from and why is it in this fungus in the first place well the accurate sensation is due to a compound that's a terpene compound in Turpan Zoar hydrocarbon compounds that are ubiquitous in nature the found in so many different plants a lot of fungi as well and terpenes are used by humans in flavorings and medicines and cleaners and in insecticides also in bioremediation efforts now the terpenes in lactarius fungi are considered to be toxins by many researchers and it's interesting there are a lot of fungal toxins in the fungal kingdom many of the mild some of them obviously severe but not many toxic compounds in the fungal kingdom are terpenes but there are a few that I can think of - oh ma fascicular e the sulfur tough mushroom has a compound known as fascicular all which is toxic and that compound is a terpene compound the jack-o-lantern mushroom o falada salud ins contains ill Luden's those are toxic compounds that are terpenes and in lactarius mushrooms the accurate sensation is due to a terpene compound which is considered by many researchers to be toxic so what's going on within this lactarius Roofus mushroom is that within seconds after physical injury to the gills an inactive precursor compound in the latex of these fruiting bodies is enzymatically and rapidly so within seconds converted into compounds as sesqui terpenes which is a class of terpene compounds and these sesqui terpenes possess potent anti-cancer microbial activity and in this specific fungus lactarius rufus the sesquiterpene compound is known as I select arrow roofin and interestingly research has shown that mammals that normally feed on mushrooms so my cough adjust mammals will avoid edible specimens that have been pretreated with these accurate sesqui terpenes so essentially the leading theory is that in these acrid tasting lactarius mushrooms that exude this acrid latex this latex contains sesquiterpene compounds that deter insects and my cottages animals from consuming those particular species but keep in mind there are a lot of lactarius mushrooms that do not produce accurate latex they secrete latex but it's mild so why is that well who really knows I think it's all just part of the grand mystery perfectly manifested within the fungal Kingdom so regarding the edibility status of this mushroom lactarius Rufus is listed as a poisonous and toxic fungus in many field guides and also online on many websites this mushroom undoubtedly has been responsible for numerous cases of gastrointestinal illnesses however you might be watching this saying in my culture we eat this mushroom we've always eaten this mushroom this is a mushroom that is edible and I believe you because after special preparation and taking numerous steps to detoxify this mushroom this mushroom can be rendered edible but it involves various processes involving salting and parboiling and draining the water and maybe even more steps I've never done it so I cannot recommend this mushroom for the table but if you're interested in doing anything with this mushroom beyond just identifying it and photographing it you want to take it home and do something with it and definitely do more research on it yourself but there is a reason that this mushroom is listed as toxic because raw it is toxic and if it's not prepared in a very special way it is still considered to be toxic but remember it's a beautiful mushroom and it's an ecologically important mushroom lactarius Rufus the red-hot milk mushroom so I hope you learned something today about this fascinating fungus right here known as the red hot milk at mushroom lactarius Rufus or the Rufus milk cap one of the most fascinating organisms in a spruce forest so if there's a spruce forest where you live take a look around look for these trees right here because these are the Norway spruce trees take a look at the forest floor especially in the autumn months you may have the good fortune of finding this interesting fungus and I can see why some people would call this the hottest mushroom in the forest because of its extremely acrid taste I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it is the hottest mushroom because I've had some pretty hot rustle of mushrooms pretty hot lactarius mushrooms but this one's up there on the list thanks again for watching this video if you enjoyed it and you're not subscribed to the YouTube channel feel free to subscribe to the learner land YouTube channel you can also head on over to learn your landcom sign up for the email newsletter but we could stay in touch on social media at learn your land on Facebook and Instagram thanks again I'll see you on the next video [Music] you

Channel: Learn Your Land

Views: 55,043

Keywords: Adam Haritan, Learn Your Land, Mushroom, Mushrooms, Fungi, Fungus, Foraging, Wild Edibles, Medicinal Mushrooms, Mycology, Botany, Plants, Lactarius, Outdoors, Nature, Hiking, Backpacking, Hunting, Mushroom Hunting, Permaculture, Primitive Skills, Trapping, Pennsylvania, Herbalism

Id: l69V4NLcgdo

Length: 13min 32sec (812 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 29 2019