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Just returned from Russia. Loved "Opyata" but...


Original Marcus

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I'd love help with Opyata (опята/ опенок).  I saw a thread here discussing them in the American north mentioning they are called Popinki and other versions.  However, 1. how can you tell small Opyata (first picture) (Armillaria mellea) from Nameko (pholeota Nameko) (second picture) mushrooms? Particularly the small ones when cooked or in jars?  2. the Opyata are honey mushrooms - I'm sure I've had tons growing in my chipped wood piles - but they can kill apple trees, and I'm an orchardist and am afraid of the honey mushrooms infecting my trees. I ate quite a few so-called opyata in Russia cooked in various ways - amazing and delicious.  But when I ID them - the photos I see that look like what I ate are often similar - the small, orangish, medium stemmed, buttonish Opyata/Nameko.  I read Nameko are a cold weather mushroom.  Thoughts/advice?  I want to grow some, and gather them.

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NAMEKO.jpg

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Picked and eat lots of opyata=honey mushrooms in childhood, in Russia. Now came across Nameko and they appears to be very similar. Having read lots of information about honey mushrooms on uk sites I can understand some concerns about the risk for trees etc. I have never come across the issue of fungi killing the tree in Russia unless it is already a diseased tree and even then it takes few years for it to demise which it would do anyway. Opyata appears only in autumn in Russia , so one can say it is a colder weather mushrooms, you won’t find them in summer. My feeling they are the same family as Nameko although not found any reliable evidence of that yet. Will keep searching. Lovely photos, Marcus!  

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