Agrocybe
Agrocybe praecox
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Agaricales
Family: Strophariaceae
Genus: Agrocybe
Fayod.
Type species
Agrocybe praecox
(Pers.) Fayod

Agrocybe is a genus of mushrooms in the family Strophariaceae (previously placed in the Bolbitiaceae). The genus has a widespread distribution, and contains about 100 species.[1]

Distribution

Agrocybe aegerita growing on a poplar stump in Girona, Catalonia, Spain.

In Europe, toxic forms are not normally found, but Agrocybe molesta could be confused with poisonous white Agaricus species or with poisonous Amanita species.

Uses

Mushroom cultivation began with the Romans and Greeks, who grew the small Agrocybe aegerita. The Romans believed that fungi fruited when lightning struck.[2]

A. aegerita is commonly known as the poplar mushroom,[3] chestnut mushroom or velvet pioppino (Chinese: 茶樹菇). It is a white rot fungus.[3] It is cultivated and sold in Japan, Korea, Australia and China. It is an important valuable source of bioactive secondary metabolites such as indole derivatives with free radical scavenging activity, cylindan with anticancer activity, and also agrocybenine with antifungal activity.[4]

Agrocybe farinacea of Japan, a species closely related to Agrocybe putaminum,[5] has been reported to contain the hallucinogen psilocybin;[6] however, there has been no recent chemical analysis carried out on this mushroom, nor any modern reports of psychoactivity.

Selected list of species

Agrocybe pediades spores

See also

References

  1. ^ Kirk PM, Cannon PF, Minter DW, Stalpers JA (2008). Dictionary of the Fungi (10th ed.). Wallingford: CABI. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-85199-826-8.
  2. ^ Clifford A. Wright, Mediterranean vegetables: a cook's ABC of vegetables and their preparation, pg. 229, Harvard Common Press (2001), ISBN 1-55832-196-9
  3. ^ a b Mariano García Rollán, Cultivo de setas y trufas, pg. 167, MUNDI-PRENSA (2007), ISBN 84-8476-316-1 (in Spanish)
  4. ^ Jian-Jiang Zhong, Feng-Wu Bai, Wei Zhang, Biotechnology in China I: From Bioreaction to Bioseparation and Bioremediation, vol. 1, pag. 102, Springer (2009), ISBN 3-540-88414-9
  5. ^ Rijksherbarium, Blumea: Supplement, vol. 4, pg. 142, Journal of Plant Taxonomy and Geography, Netherlands (1952)
  6. ^ Jonathan Ott, Albert Hofmann, Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History, pg. 313, Natural Products Company (1993), ISBN 0-9614234-9-8
  7. ^ Miller Jr., Orson K.; Miller, Hope H. (2006). North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi. Guilford, CN: FalconGuide. p. 271. ISBN 978-0-7627-3109-1.
  8. ^ Hausknecht A, Krisai-Greilhuber I, Voglmayr H (2004). "Type studies in North American species of Bolbitiaceae belonging to the genera Conocybe and Pholiotina". Österreichische Zeitschrift für Pilzkunde. 13: 153–235 (see pp. 180, 212).

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