Volvariella volvacea

The straw mushroom, Volvariella volvacea, is a species of mushroom commonly cultivated in Eastern and Southeast Asia. The common name refers to the preferred substrate of rice straw, though, in the Philippines, it is often cultivated on dried banana leaves. Cultivation is robust enough that straw mushrooms are often dried, or canned, then exported across the world. The dried and canned forms are the forms most Westerners tend to encounter. Conversely, Southeast Asian people collecting mushrooms in Western countries have been poisoned when they picked immature toxic amanita mushrooms, having mistook them for immature straw mushrooms. The best way to distinguish between a straw mushroom and an amanita is that the spore print of a straw mushroom is pink, and the spore print of most amanitas are white.

Straw mushrooms are cultivated by preparing piled beds of presoaked substrate, which are then inoculated with fertilizer and fungus, then carefully covered in plastic sheets to control the rates of humidity and gas exchange. The mushrooms are usually harvested when they are immature, usually in their “egg” or button stage, before the cap bursts through the veil.

Straw mushrooms are not featured too much in Chinese Medicine, though, in Chinese Food Therapy, they are often used to treat malnutrition, and to help combat scurvy due to their high Vitamin C content, which persists even when canned. The flesh of the straw mushroom is firm and meaty. The taste is similar to that of the white or cremini mushroom, though, is sometimes saltier due to preservation in brine from canning.