Agrocybe, including edible fungi such as the Agrocybe cylindracea, is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of mushroom

Mushroom

A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...

 with similar characteristics to the Tricholoma matsutake, Agrocybe aegerita and Agrocybe parasitica. Some are poisonous

Mushroom poisoning

Mushroom poisoning refers to harmful effects from ingestion of toxic substances present in a mushroom. These symptoms can vary from slight gastrointestinal discomfort to death. The toxins present are secondary metabolites produced in specific biochemical pathways in the fungal cells...

 mushrooms. The genus has a widespread distribution, and contains about 100 species.
The edible mushroom

Edible mushroom

Edible mushrooms are the fleshy and edible fruiting bodies of several species of fungi. Mushrooms belong to the macrofungi, because their fruiting structures are large enough to be seen with the naked eye. They can appear either below ground or above ground where they may be picked by hand...

s species are not easy to identify and it is safer to avoid the entire genus when mushroom hunting

Mushroom hunting

Mushroom hunting, mushrooming, mushroom picking, and similar terms describe the activity of gathering mushrooms in the wild, typically for eating...

 for consumption.

Distribution

Mushroom cultivation began with the Romans and Greeks, who grew the small Agrocybe aegerita. The Romans, who wrote that fungi were thought to arise when lightning struck, collected truffles.
In Europe, toxic forms are not normally found, but the Agrocybe molesta is easily confused with Agaricus (white mushrooms)

Agaricus

Agaricus is a large and important genus of mushrooms containing both edible and poisonous species, with possibly over 300 members worldwide...

 or with seriously poisonous forms of Amanita

Amanita

The genus Amanita contains about 600 species of agarics including some of the most toxic known mushrooms found worldwide. This genus is responsible for approximately 95% of the fatalities resulting from mushroom poisoning, with the death cap accounting for about 50% on its own...

.

The edible southern species Agrocybe aegerita, also called Agrocybe cylindracea or Pholiota aegerita, is commonly known as Poplar mushroom, Chestnut mushroom or Velvet pioppino (Chinese: 茶樹菇). It belongs to the white rot fungi and is a medium-sized agaric having a very open and convex cap, almost flat, of 3 to 10 cm in diameter. Underneath, it has numerous whitish radial plates adherent to the foot, later turning to a brownish-gray color, and light elliptic spores of 8-11 by 5-7 micrometres. The white fiber foot is generally curved, having a membraneous ring on the top part which promptly turns to tobacco color due to the falling spores. When very young, its color may be reddish-brown and later turn to a light brown color, more ocher toward the center and whiter around its border. It grows in tufts on logs and holes in the poplars, and other trees of large leaves It is cultivated and sold in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. It is an important valuable source possessing varieties of bioactive secondary metabolites such as indole derivatives with free radical scavenging activity, cylindan with anticancer activity, and also agrocybenine with antifungal activity.

The Agrocybe farinacea

Agrocybe farinacea

Agrocybe farinacea is a species of mushroom in the Strophariaceae family.-External links:**...

, whose species is closely related to the Agrocybe putaminum, is a species of mushroom in the Strophariaceae

Strophariaceae

The Strophariaceae are a family of fungi in the order Agaricales. The family contains 18 genera and 1316 species. The species of Strophariaceae have a red-brown to dark brown spore print, while the spores themselves are smooth and have an apical germ pore. These agarics are also characterized by...

 family. It grows in Japan and contains the hallucinogen psilocybin

Psilocybin

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic prodrug, with mind-altering effects similar to those of LSD and mescaline, after it is converted to psilocin. The effects can include altered thinking processes, perceptual distortions, an altered sense of time, and spiritual experiences, as well as...

.

Selected list of species

• Agrocybe acericola (maple agrocybe)
• Agrocybe aegerita
• Agrocybe amara
• Agrocybe arvalis
• Agrocybe cylindracea
• Agrocybe dura
• Agrocybe erebia
• Agrocybe farinacea
  Agrocybe farinacea
  Agrocybe farinacea is a species of mushroom in the Strophariaceae family.-External links:**...
  
  (contains psilocybin)
• Agrocybe firma
• Agrocybe molesta
• Agrocybe paludosa
• Agrocybe parasitica
• Agrocybe pediades
  Agrocybe pediades
  Agrocybe pediades is a typically lawn and other types of grassland mushroom, but can also grow on mulch containing horse manure. It was first described as Agaricus pediades by Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries in 1821, and moved to its current genus Agrocybe by Victor Fayod in 1889...
  
  (common lawn mushroom)
• Agrocybe praecox (common, widespread, and edible)
• Agrocybe putaminum
• Agrocybe retigera
• Agrocybe semiorbicularis
• Agrocybe sororia
• Agrocybe vervacti

External links

• Mushroom Expert's Information on Agrocybe Genus