Size

Medium (5–15 cm)

Mushrooms with a cap diameter of 5 to 15 centimeters make up the vast majority of forest finds. This is the "golden mean" of the mushroom world, and it's exactly the size most people picture when they hear the word "mushroom".

From an evolutionary point of view (as M.Ya. Zerova argues), this size is the optimal balance between the resources the mycelium spends on building a fruiting body and the maximum hymenophore area for spreading millions of spores on the wind.

24 species in the database.

The main members of the "middle class"

This category includes the vast majority of both the tastiest and the most poisonous mushrooms of our climate zone:

1. Brittlegills (Russula): All the many brittlegill species (green, red, yellow) have a spread-out cap 6 to 12 cm across when mature.

2. Field and wood mushrooms (Agaricus): The classic size of a wood or field mushroom ranges within 8-12 cm (though larger specimens do occur).

3. Milk caps (Lactarius): Saffron milk caps, white and black milk caps, woolly milk caps — all of them form firm, medium-sized fruiting bodies with incurved edges.

4. Death cap (Amanita phalloides): The most dangerous mushroom in the forest is also a "mid-sizer". Its perfectly even, flat olive cap rarely exceeds 10-12 cm when fully open.

The ideal size for picking

For a forager, medium size is the most convenient and desirable.

Such mushrooms are easy to spot from a distance (unlike tiny ones), yet their flesh still keeps its high density, firmness and flavor (unlike "huge", overgrown, spongy mushrooms). Medium mushrooms (for example, young porcini or red-capped scaber stalks with 6-8 cm caps) are ideal both for pickling whole and for drying or freezing.

Sources

1.Зерова М.Я. та ін. Визначник грибів України. 1979
2.Roger Phillips. Mushrooms (Roger Phillips)
3.David Arora. Mushrooms Demystified
4.Index Fungorum