Local Name
Busht’isebri tavak’a (1), Datvis kachkachi (mokh.) (2).
Description
Fruitbody: The fruitbody is 15–18 cm across, squat and pear-shaped when mature tapering towards the base, white to pale grey-brown finally darker brown, outer wall consisting of scurfy warts and soon breaking up into hexagonal patches leaving the fragile inner wall to flake off irregularly at the top. Gleba olivaceous-brown and powdery, sterile base thick, up to one-half of the fruit-body. Flesh: The flesh is granular or brittle, whitish at first, then brownish-greenish or darker. Spores: The spores are 4 X 5 µm, olive-brown, globose, warted.
Habitat: In pastures, on meadows or on heaths, sometimes on the edges of the forests. Season: Spring, autumn.
Distribution: All regions of Georgia (3).
Uses
Edibility: Edible when young and fresh (1).
Khevi — “As I remember, it was several times, when I was a kid, my mother put this fungi onto my frozen heel, we call this fungi Datvis kachkachi” (2). “You can find Datvis kachkachi on the pasturelands, at first they’re look like big balls, then look like cups, we eat them only if the fungi flesh is solid” (4).
References
- Nakhutsrishvili, I.G. (2007) Fungi of Georgia. Tbilisi: Buneba Printi.
- Ghudushauri, I. (2011) Dictionary of the Mokhevian Dialect. Tbilisi.
- Nakhutsrishvili, I.G., et al. (1986) Flora of Spore-producing Plants of Georgia (Summary). Tbilisi: Metsniereba (Russian).
- Chkareuli, T. (2015) Stepantsminda, Kazbegi.