Agaricus bisporus — a delicious edible mushroom, used like other varieties of mushrooms. Grows: in August-October on open areas and cultivated soil, in gardens, vegetable plots, greenhouses and ditches, on pastures, rarely in forests, on soil where there is hardly any or no grass, not often. Cap: 3-8 cm in diameter, round, edges curled downward. Cap surface smooth, usually glossy in the center, covered with scales and flakes.
Three color forms are distinguished: besides brown, artificially bred white and cream-colored varieties exist. Gills: frequent, free, initially pinkish-gray, then dark brown, dark brownish. Stem: thick, 3-10 cm long and 2-4 cm in diameter, cylindrical, smooth, uniform in color with the cap. Ring — simple, narrow, white. Flesh: thick, dense, fleshy, white or slightly yellowish, slightly pinkish when cut, with pleasant mushroom aroma.
Agaricus bisporus, also known as cultivated mushroom, or Parisian mushroom. Simply, mushroom. The Latin name of the mushroom is read as: Agaricus bisporus. It does not grow in forests, meadows, or wastelands — only in outbuildings near stables. Scientists discovered it only in the second half of the last century, although by then it had been growing on beds for three hundred years.
Among the sixty or so other mushroom species, it is like Cinderella before the good fairy appears, yet on the bed — like Cinderella at the ball. No one deliberately chose Agaricus bisporus for cultivation — it happened naturally. This species grows on manure, does not form symbiosis with higher plants (unlike, for example, the white mushroom, which cannot live alone), fruits at room temperature. Cap of fruiting body white, rarely straw-colored, sometimes grayish-brown in domestic strains. Cap surface smooth, occasionally with barely noticeable scales. Cap diameter 30–120 mm.
Gills are frequent, grayish in youth, then pinkish, and dark brown to nearly black in older fruiting bodies. Stem white, occasionally slightly brownish, with a ring near the top, slightly swollen at the base, 30-120 x 10-18 mm. Flesh white, turning pinkish over time. Often people debate whether it's better to collect mushrooms in the forest or cultivate them? Is it necessary to build mushroom houses, breed high-yield strains, deal with compost preparation, etc., if mushrooms grow well on their own? After all, people have collected mushrooms for ages.
In fact, collecting mushrooms seems simpler and more profitable at first glance. First, the most valuable species are already listed in the 'Red Book' or are on their way there. Second, collected mushrooms are always lower in quality. Third, their cost is noticeably higher. Labor of the collector is one of the largest expenses even in industrial mushroom farming. Try organizing the collection of two or three tons of young, cap-closed, first-grade mushrooms, and deliver them to the city — you'll get truly golden mushrooms. Moreover, eating cultivated mushrooms is safer — there's no chance of encountering a poisonous one.
