- Volvariella volvacea (also known as paddy straw mushroom or straw mushroom) is a species of edible mushroom cultivated throughout East and Southeast Asia and used extensively in Asian cuisines.
- They are often available fresh in Asia, but are more frequently found in canned or dried forms outside their nations of cultivation.
- Worldwide, straw mushrooms rank third in consumption, although their use in the West is somewhat uncommon and usually confined to use in Oriental cooking.
- Straw mushrooms are grown on rice straw beds and are most commonly picked when immature (often labeled "unpeeled"), during their button or egg phase and before the veil ruptures.
- They are adaptable and take four to five days to mature, and are most successfully grown in subtropical climates with high annual rainfall.
- No record has been found of their cultivation before the 19th century.
- The paddy straw mushroom is having good combinations of all attributes like flavour, aroma, delicacy, high content of protein and vitamins and minerals, because of which, the acceptability of this mushroom is no way less than much popular white button mushroom.
- It is an edible mushroom of the topics and subtropics, and began to be cultivated in China as early as 1822.
- Around 1932-, the straw mushroom was introduced into the Philippines, Malaysia, and other south-east Asian countries by overseas Chinese.
- Since then, its cultivation has been conducted in various countries outside of the region.
- The fruiting body formation starts with tiny clusters of white hyphal aggregates called primordia and it is followed by several morphological stages in the fruiting body development process.
- The successive stages are called as "button", "eggs", "elongation", "mature" stages respectively. Differentiation can be seen first at the 'button' stage.
- At maturity the buttons enlarge and umbrella like fruit bodies emerge after the rupture of the volva.
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