Giant puffball (giant bighead, giant langermania) (9 photos)

The giant golovach (giant puffball, giant Langermania) (lat. Calvatia gigantea) is an edible mushroom that belongs to the basidiomycetes department, the class Agaricomycetes, the order Agariaceae, the champignon family, the genus golovach.

Giant raincoat (giant bighead) - description and characteristics.

Giant raincoat mushrooms (bigheads) can reach a diameter of 35 centimeters. The weight of a bighead can be 10 kilograms. This mushroom has neither a cap nor a stem. The fruiting body has the shape of a ball. The giant puffball has snow-white flesh, a pleasant smell, and a pleasant taste. As the mushroom begins to ripen more and more, the snow-white color changes to yellow and then green. The puffball should not be eaten when it begins to turn yellow.

Where does the giant bighead grow?

Mushrooms bear fruit from early summer until October. For germination, puffball selects nitrogen-rich soil in clearings and edges of deciduous or mixed forests, and also grows in steppes, meadows, fields, parks, gardens, and pastures.

Giant golovach - beneficial properties.

These mushrooms contain a beneficial substance called calvacin. It is used by traditional medicine doctors in the treatment of kidneys, leukemia and tumors. A giant puffball is used to make a flu vaccine. The mushroom can help with laryngitis, smallpox and urticaria. In case of bleeding, the cut giant puffball and its spores have a healing effect. There are many decoctions and preparations from this mushroom. Preparations containing fungal spores cleanse the body of toxins, metals and radionuclides. Medicine from the spores of the giant bighead is used for diabetes, pleurisy, pulmonary tuberculosis and bronchial asthma.

How to cook giant bighead?

You can add giant puffball to your diet, but only a white mushroom with white and elastic flesh. The shell is removed and the pulp is cut into layers. Layers of mushrooms can be fried in batter or breadcrumbs. This mushroom should not be cooked, as when cooked it acquires an unpleasant taste and absorbs a lot of water.

Another way to eat mushrooms is by drying them. The raincoat dries very easily and quickly.

False raincoat

Like most types of mushrooms, there is an inedible mushroom that is very similar to the giant puffball - this is the false puffball. The false raincoat is darker on the outside and in the flesh than the real raincoat.

How to grow a giant bighead (puffball) yourself?

One giant raincoat can feed an entire family with dinner. To find a giant puffball (bighead), you don’t have to look for it in the forest or in a store; you can grow the mushroom yourself. Mycelium will help in this matter. Mycelium is a fungal vegetative body consisting of hyphae - thin, branched threads. Under natural conditions, one gram of forest litter contains up to 35 kilometers of mycelium. Choose a shady place for future sowing. Suitable places are in raspberry fields, under trees, in grass or bushes. The main requirement for all these places is that the temperature at any time of the year, except winter, should be at least 14 degrees, but not more than 29 degrees. The mushroom bears fruit every 20 days already 4 weeks after planting. When a planting site has been chosen, the soil needs to be loosened and the mycelium of the giant raincoat should be scattered evenly. Then you need to cover the mycelium with a seven-centimeter layer of soil and water the planted raincoat.

Interesting Facts:

In the 19th century, barbers kept a piece of dried giant bighead with them: the pulp, applied to a cut, helped to quickly stop the bleeding and contributed to the rapid healing of the wound.