is grown on a mixture of manure, straw, and
soil in dark buildings with carefully
controlled humidity and temperature. The
tropical zone’s version of the button
mushroom is the (paddy-) straw mushroom,
which grows on composted rice straw. On the
other hand, cultivation of symbiotic species is
difficult, because the mushrooms need living
trees, and intensive production requires a
forest. This is why boletes, chanterelles, and
truffles are relatively rare and expensive:
they’re still largely gathered from the wild. Of
an estimated 1,000 edible mushroom species,
only a few dozen have been successfully
cultivated.
The Structure and Qualities of Mushrooms
Mushrooms differ from plants in several
important ways. The part we eat is only one
small portion of the organism, most of which
lives invisibly underground as a fine, cottony