According to the name of the mushroom - honey mushroom, it is easy to guess that it is absolutely necessary to look for it on the stump. Like many types of mushrooms, honey agarics are saprophytes that use organic residues as a nutrient medium for their development.
Experienced mushroom pickers can easily determine the place in the forest where you need to look for mushrooms. As a rule, these are rotten trees or old stumps felled from a strong wind. Sometimes honey mushrooms located in the grass are mistakenly called meadow mushrooms. There are really a lot of honey mushroom varieties, but they are all united by one feature - they grow on completely rotten or still living stumps. And the so-called meadow mushrooms have chosen this territory for one simple reason - under a layer of thick grass there are already decomposed wood remains.
Favorable environment for the growth of honey agarics
If there was no such harmony in nature, the forests would have long been mired in dead wood, fallen branches and foliage. A huge amount of organic matter of plant residues decomposes into simple compounds under the influence of fungi. According to the type of nutrition, all fungi are subdivided into saprophytes and parasites, and honey mushrooms are no exception. They feed on organic residues, activating, in turn, their rotting and decay.
Saprophytes include honey agaric and most cap mushrooms, but each species has its own preferences. Someone loves fallen leaves, feathers of dead birds, charcoal, and summer mushroom will feel good on the remains of deciduous trees. The gray-lamellar false honey agaric, on the other hand, will grow on the deadwood of coniferous trees. Autumn honey agaric can often be found on a live stump, so it belongs to parasitic fungi. However, they also bring benefits - they help decompose those trees that are no longer viable anyway.
The participation of honey agarics in the biological destruction of wood
Honey mushrooms do not immediately appear on stumps. Research by scientists has proven that the destruction of non-viable wood is a complex process that is divided into many stages. At first, imperfect mushrooms settle on a fallen tree, feeding only on the contents of the cells, without destroying their walls. Gradually gray, yellow and brown spots appear on the wood. Such changes have almost no effect on the physical properties of the tree.
Basidal mushrooms are replacing imperfect mushrooms. Their mycelium penetrates deeper, and in addition to the contents of the cells, it can feed on intermediate decay products. The mycelium of basidal fungi is accompanied by companion fungi (penicilli), which contribute to the acidification of the environment. This is a favorable condition for the further development of basidal and imperfect fungi capable of decomposing cellulose (trichoderma, stachibotris, some species of marsupial fungi). The mycelium of basidal fungi is eliminated as the cellulose reserves are depleted. The environment turns from acidic to alkaline, and new types of fungi appear, which break down fiber and protein even more vigorously.
At this stage, the tree loses its shape, becomes rotten, becomes covered with moss and other plants - which means that the time has come for hat mushrooms. Honey mushrooms bring the work started to the end, mineralizing organic substances, forming a fertile soil layer and replenishing their vital energy reserves at the expense of a dead tree.
