Other Cultivated Mushrooms — Their Number Grows

Although the intentional growing of mushrooms began approximately 1000 years ago and the wild species that have been used as food number in the hundreds, the species that have been extensively cultivated are few. Even today in North America and Western Europe, almost 90% of the cultivated mushrooms are of one species, Agaricus bisporus. However, both regions are now considered to be in a saturated market, and people are willing to pay more for new varieties of mushrooms. ¹⁹ There has been a gradual increase in consumption of other mushrooms, such as Pleurotus spp., Lentinula edodes, and Hypsizygus marmoreus. On the other hand, in the worldwide market, the percentage of production of A. bisporus has declined from 71.6% in 1981 to 31.8% in 1997. ² We have shown in the previous chapters that a number of other species are cultivated: some, e.g., Lentinula, Auricularia, Flammulina, and Pleurotus, in fairly large amounts; and others, e.g., Pholiota, Tremella, and Dictyophora, in increasing amounts. The five most popularly cultivated edible mushrooms are A. bisporus, L. edodes, Pleurotus spp., Auricularia spp., and F. velutipes, which accounted for 83.9% of total world production in 1997. The top five in China are Pleurotus spp., L. edodes, Auricularia spp., A. bisporus, and F. velutipes, which made up 88.5% of the national production in 2001. In Japan, the top five are L. edodes, F. velutipes, H. marmoreus, Grifola frondosa, and Pholiota nameko, which contributed up to 96.0% in 1999. There are still others, for which cultivation techniques are available that are expected to be produced in increased amounts, some that are very popular but for which only semicultivation techniques are available, and some which are very popular in some regions but are less well known or less appreciated elsewhere.