Sesban (river bean)

Sesban

 Sesbania sesban (L.) Merr.

a- Scientific Classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae
Genus:	Sesbania
Species:	Sesbania sesban

Synonyms for the species name include

-Aeschynomene aegyptiaca (Pers.) Steud.

-Aeschynomene elongata Salisb.

-Aeschynomene sesban L.

-Dolichos aeschynome-sesban Forssk.

-Emerus

-Sesbania punctata DC.

-Sesbania tchadica A. Chev.

Two subspecies are recognized within S. sesban, namely ssp. punctata (restricted to northern portions of sub-Saharan Africa) and ssp. sesban.

Common names

-(Afrikaans) : rivierboontjie

-(Amharic) : girangire

-(Arabic) : sesaban

-(Bengali) : jainti, jayant

-(Burmese) : yay-tha-kyee, yethugyi

-(English) : common sesban, Sesban, Egyptian rattle pod, frother, river bean, sesban, sesbania, Ladybug, Ladybird.

-(Filipino) : katodai, katuray

-(Hindi) : jainti, jait, rawasan

-(Indonesian) : janti, jayanti, puri

-(Javanese) : janti

-(Khmer) : snaô kôôk

-(Lao (Sino-Tibetan)) : sapao lom

-(Luganda) : mubimba, muzimbandeya

-(Sanskrit) : jayanti, jayantika

-(Spanish) : Añil francés, tamarindillo

-(Tamil) : champai, chithagathi, karunchembai

-(Thai) : sami, saphaolom

-(Vietnamese) : Điên điển, Điền thanh nước.

-(Zulu) : umQambuqweqwe, umsokosoko

b-Ecology and distribution

History of cultivation

The origin of S. sesban is unclear, but it is widely distributed and cultivated throughout tropical Africa and Asia. Africa is its centre of diversity, and it probably originated there; its former name is S. aegyptiaca. From northeastern Africa, S. sesban var. sesban and its variants were spread across southern Asia.

Natural habitat

S. sesban grows well in the subtropics and is significant in extending the nitrogen-fixing forage trees into cooler, higher elevation regions of the tropics. It has outstanding ability to withstand waterlogging and is ideally suited to seasonally flooded environments. When flooded, it initiates floating, adventitious roots and protects its stems, roots and nodules with spongy, aerenchyma tissue. It is common along streams, swamp banks and moist and inundated bottomlands. S.sesban shows some tolerance to moisture stress and tolerates soil alkalinity and salinity to a considerable degree.

Geographic distribution

+Asia: China, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Pakistan, Philippines,Vietnam…

+Africa: Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan…

+Europe: Egypt.

+America: United States of America.

+Oceania: New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands.

Biophysical limits

Altitude: 100-2300 m, Mean annual temperature: (10 min.) 18-23 (45 max.) deg. C, Mean annual rainfall: 500-2000 mm Soil type: Tolerates seasonal or permanently waterlogged soils as well as saline, acidic and alkaline soils.

Reproductive Biology

S. sesban is assumed to be largely out-crossing, however interspecific hybridization is reported with S. goetzei; the carpenter bee is its main pollinator. Flowering starts shortly after the onset of the rains (in areas where there are 2 rainy seasons, it flowers and sets fruit twice). Pods are indehiscent and do not shed their seeds until well after pod maturity.

c-Botanic description

Sesbania sesban is a narrow-crowned, deep-rooting single or multi stemmed shrub or small tree, 1-7 m tall.

-The trees usually have a main stem but may develop many side branches if widely spaced. The many branches give the tree a shrubby appearance, often tending towards a spreading habit due to its wide branching angle (45-60 deg. Mostly).

-Leaves paripinnate, long, narrow; leaflets in many pairs, rounded or oblong, usually asymmetric at the base, often glaucous; stipules minute or absent.

-Flowers attractive, yellow, red, purplish, variegated or streaked, seldom white, large or small on slender pedicels, solitary or paired in short axillary racemes, usually unpleasantly scented; all petals long clawed, standard orbicular or obovate.

-Pods are subcylindrical, pale yellow, straight or slightly curved up to 30 cm long and 5 mm wide containing 10-50 seeds.

-Seeds are found in a pod, seeds oblong or subquadrate, brown or dark green mottled with black. Seed collection from most of the perennial sesbanias is easy and large quantities of seed can be rapidly hand harvested and processed.

d-Propagation and management

Propagation methods

S. sesban has a hard, impermeable seed coat, and scarification is recommended to ensure uniform germination. For research purposes, soaking in sulphuric acid followed by rinsing in water is common. Hot water treatment or soaking in cold or tepid water for 24 hours may also be effective. The seed germination rate is 65% in about 16 days. Vegetative propagation using stem cuttings is not a widespread practice; S. sesban can also be established by tissue culture.

Tree Management

One of the major advantages of sesbania over other forage trees and shrubs is its rapid early growth rate, which can be exploited by intercropping it with other slower establishing species for earlier yields. In India, it has been reported to attain a height of 4-5 m in 6 months. S. sesban thrives under repeated cuttings and coppices readily, with many branches arising from the main stem below cutting height. Cutting frequencies are generally 3-4 cuts/annum, but up to 8 cuts are made in some areas. Yields have ranged from 4 to 12 t/ha dry matter per year, depending on location. Cutting height can also influence yield, with cutting heights of 50-76 cm favouring plant survival and productivity. The rhizobium requirements of S. sesban vary. There is a host-strain interaction, and different accessions of S. sesban require different strains of bacteria.

Germplasm Management

Seed storage behaviour is orthodox. Viability can be maintained for 2 years in open storage at room temperature. There are 85 000-100 000 seeds/kg.

e-Functional uses

+Products

-Food: S. sesban flowers are edible and are included perhaps as a decorative or festive ingredient in foods such as omelettes.

-Fodder: The tree has a high percentage of foliage nitrogen and is an excellent supplement to protein-poor roughage in ruminant diets. Ruminants readily eat leaves and young branches. The crude protein content of the foliage is generally greater than 20% and often above 25%. In vitro dry-matter digestibility is 75%. Nylon-bag dry-matter digestibility of dried leaf of S. sesban is 90.7% and nitrogen digestibility is 96.7%. These characteristics, together with the generally low crude fibre content and high phosphorous levels, indicate the potential of the species as a high-quality forage source. When grazed, the brittle tree may break too easily and expose the tree to fungal attack. It has been successfully fed as a sole diet to goats and as a supplement to low-quality forage for sheep.

-Fuel: S. sesban is popular for firewood and charcoal because it produces a high woody biomass in a short time, which, although soft, is relatively smokeless, quick kindling and hot burning. The calorific yield for a 3-year-old tree is approximately 4350 kcal/kg. Fibre: S. sesban is used for making ropes and fishnet and has potential for pulpwood production.

-Gum or resin: S. sesban seeds and bark produce gum. Poison: The saponin, stigmasta-galactopyranoside, which is isolated from the seeds, has glucuronide derivatives of oleanolic acid, which has molluscicidal activity against Biophalaria glabrata, one of the known snail vectors of schistosomiasis. The saponin also shows spermicidal and haemolytic activity. Using S. sesban leaf meal in poultry diets (as 10% of the diet) is fatal to young chicks, and the provision of either cholesterol or sitosterol with the diet significantly improves chick survival.

-Medicine: Fresh S. sesban roots and leaves are used to treat scorpion stings, boils and abscesses. The Hausa of Ghana use decoctions of leaves as a drench for cattle to repel tsetse fly. Among the Haya people of Tanzania, it is used to treat sore throat, gonorrhoea, syphilis, spasmodic fits in children and jaundice during pregnancy. The leaves are used in some countries as a tea and are considered to have antibiotic, anthelmintic, antitumour and contraceptive properties. Oil from the seeds is accorded special properties in ayurvedic medicine and is reported to have bactericidal, cardiac depressant and hypoglycaemic actions.

+Services

-Shade or shelter: S. sesban has been used to shade coffee, tea and cocoa. It has also been used as a windbreak for bananas, citrus and coffee.

-Soil improver: S. sesban will increase soil nitrogen through symbiotic interaction with bacteria, has the ability to stabilize soil, and in Asia has been used as green manure for rice. Its branches have been used as mulch and leaves as a green manure. S. sesban improves soil fertility in a short-term rotation fallow and is useful in combating striga weed (Striga hermonthica). Some studies indicate that in 1 year a S. sesban fallow can increase maize yields from 2 to 4 t/ha without application of nitrogen fertilizer.

-Intercropping: S. sesban is a promising shrub for alley cropping because it is easy to establish, it grows rapidly, coppices readily and provides mulch of high nutrient content (particularly N). In some climates, such as in the highlands of Kenya, it may have a sparse canopy, and weed competition can be a problem. This characteristic makes S. sesban a good intercrop. Boundary or barrier or support: Suitable for use as live trellises for pepper.

f-Pests and diseases

S. sesban is attacked by nematodes, insects, fungi and viruses. The leaf-eating beetle Mesoplatys ochroptera can completely defoliate S. sesban, leading to mortality. Caterpillars, Hymenoptera, and stem borers are normally associated with S. sesban. Some potentially destructive root-knot nematodes have been recorded in India as associated with S. sesban.

References

1-Sesbania sesban -From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2-Sesbania sesban - Common Sesban www.flowersofindia.net.

3-Factsheet - Sesbania sesban www.tropicalforages.info/key/.../Sesbania_sesban.htm

4-Herbal Monograph - Sesbania sesban - www.himalayahealthcare.com/.../h_sesbania.htm 

5. Sesbania sesban (L.) Merr. www.nri.org/projects/biomass/.../sesbania_sesban.pdf .

Lingzhi mushroom

Lingzhi mushroom

-Comon names: Lingzhi mushroom,

-Scientific name: Ganoderma lucidum (Curtis) P. Karst.

Scientific classification

-Kingdom: Fungi.

-Phylum: Basidiomycota.

-Class: Agaricomycetes.

-Order: Polyporales.

-Family: Ganodermataceae.

-Genus:Ganoderma P. Karst.

-Species: Ganoderma lucidum

-The neighbour species:G. applanatum, G. brownii, G. curtisii, G. lobatum, G.   multipileum, G. orbiforme, G. philippii, G. pseudoferreum, G. tornatum, G. tsugae, G. zonatum, G. boninense…

a-About Genus Ganoderma

+Ganoderma is a genus of polypore mushrooms which grow on wood and include about 80 species, many from tropical regions.

Because of their extensive use in traditional Asian medicines, and their potential in bioremediation, they are a very important genus economically. Ganoderma can be differentiated from other polypores because they have a double walled basidiospore. They are popularly referred to as shelf mushrooms or bracket mushrooms

Ganoderma are characterized by basidiocarps that are large, perennial, woody brackets, also called "conks". They are lignicolous, leathery, and either with or without a stem. The fruit bodies typically grow in a fanlike or hooflike form on the trunks of living or dead trees. They have double-walled, truncate spores with yellow to brown ornamented inner layers.

The name Ganoderma is derived from the Greek ganos/γανος "brightness, sheen", hence "shining" and derma/δερμα "skin".

The genus was named by Karsten in 1881. Members of the family Ganodermataceae were traditionally considered difficult to classify because of the lack of reliable morphological characteristics, the overabundance of synonyms, and the widespread misuse of names. Until recently, the genus was divided into two sections – Section Ganoderma with a shiny cap surface (like Ganoderma lucidum) and Elfvingia, with a dull cap surface, like Ganoderma applanatum.

Phylogenetic analysis using DNA sequence information derived from mitochondrial SSU rDNA, have helped to clarify our understanding of the relationships amongst Ganoderma species.The genus may now be divided into six monophyletic groups:

-G. colossus group

-G. applanatum group

-G. tsugae group

-Asian G. lucidum group

-G. meredithiae group

-G. resinaceum group

In 1905, American mycologist William Murrill delineated the genus Tomophagus  to accommodate the single species G. colossus (then known as Polyporus colossus) which had distinctive morphological features that did not fit in with the other species. Historically, however, Tomophagus has generally been regarded as a synonym forGanoderma. Nearly a century later, phylogenetic analyses vindicated Murrill's original placement, as it has shown to be a taxonomically distinct appropriate genus.

Several species of Ganoderma have been used in traditional Asian medicines (specifically in Korea, Japan and China) for thousands of years. Collectively, the Ganoderma are being investigated for a variety of potential therapeutic benefits: anticancer, immunoregulatory, liver-protecting, hypoglycemic , antibacterial , antiviral and antifungal effect; antioxidant activities,  reducing blood cholesterol, inhibiting blood vessel regeneration (angiogenesis, antifibrotic effects, protection against radiation-induced damage, reducing lower urinary tract symptoms, increasing endurance for vigorous exercise.

+Notable species:

-Ganoderma applanatum - Also known as the Artist's conch.

-Ganoderma lucidum - Also known as Reishi or Lingzhi

-Ganoderma multipileum - the correct name for G. lucidum in tropical Asia

-Ganoderma philippii - A plant pathogen.

-Ganoderma pseudoferreum - Responsible for the root rot of cacao, coffee, rubber and tea trees

-Ganoderma tsugae - A polypore which grows on conifers, especially hemlock; thus the common name, Hemlock varnish shelf. Similar in appearance to Ganoderma lucidum, which typically grows onhardwoods.

+Industry: Ganoderma are wood-decaying fungi with a cosmopolitan distribution, and can grow on both coniferous and hardwood species. They are white-rot fungi, and have enzymes that allow them to break down wood components such as lignin and cellulose. There has been significant research interest in trying to harness the power of these wood-degrading enzymes for industrial applications such as biopulping or bioremediation.

b- Lingzhi mushroom

+Some Asian countries’names

The lingzhi mushroom or reishi mushroom (traditional Chinese: “pinyin”:  língzhī;  Japanese: “ reishi”; Vietnamese: “linh chi”; literally: "supernatural mushroom") encompasses several fungal species of the genus Ganoderma, and most commonly refers to the closely related species, Ganoderma lucidum and Ganoderma tsugae. G. lucidum enjoys special veneration in East Asia, where it has been used as a medicinal mushroom in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2,000 years, making it one of the oldest mushrooms known to have been used medicinally. Because of lingzhi's presumed health benefits and apparent absence of side-effects, it has attained a reputation in the East as the ultimate herbal substance. Lingzhi is listed in the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia and Therapeutic Compendium.

+Taxonomy and names

Names for the lingzhi fungus have a two thousand year history. The Chinese term “lingzhi”was first recorded in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 CE).

 Petter Adolf Karsten named the genus Ganoderma in 1881.

+Botanical names

The lingzhi's botanical names have Greek and Latin roots. The generic name Ganoderma derives from the Greek ganos "brightness; sheen", hence "shining" and derma "skin".The specific epithet lucidum is Latin for "shining" and tsugae for"hemlock"  (from Japanese Tsuga ).

There are multiple species of lingzhi, scientifically known to be within the Ganoderma lucidum species complex and mycologists are still researching the differences among species within this complex.

+English names

English lingzhi or ling chih (sometimes misspelled "ling chi" from French EFEO Chinese transcription) is a Chinese loanword.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives Chinese "líng divine + zhī fungus" as the origin ofling chih or lingzhi, and defines, "The fungus Ganoderma lucidum, believed in China to confer longevity and used as a symbol of this on Chinese ceramic ware.". The OED notes the earliest recorded usage of theWade-Giles romanization ling chih in 1904, and of the Pinyin lingzhi in 1980. In addition to the transliterated loanword, English names include "glossy ganoderma" and "shiny polyporus".

Description

Lingzhi is a polypore mushroom that is soft (when fresh), corky, and flat, with a conspicuous red-varnished, kidney-shaped cap and, depending on specimen age, white to dull brown pores underneath. It lack sgills on its underside and releases its spores through fine pores, leading to its morphological classification as a polypore.

Ganoderma lucidum generally occurs in two growth forms, one, found in North America, is sessile and rather large with only a small or no stalk, while the other is smaller and has a long, narrow stalk, and is found mainly in the tropics. However, many growth forms exist that are intermediate to the two types, or even exhibit very unusual morphologies, raising the possibility that they are separate species. Environmental conditions also play a substantial role in the different morphological characteristics lingzhi can exhibit. For example, elevated carbon dioxide levels result in stem elongation in lingzhi. Other forms show "antlers', without a cap and these may be affected by carbon dioxide levels as well.

Biochemistry

Ganoderma lucidum produces a group of triterpenes, called ganoderic acids, which have a molecular structure similar to steroid hormones. It also contains other compounds many of which are typically found in fungal materials including polysaccharides such as beta-glucan, coumarin, mannitol, and alkaloids.

Habitat

Ganoderma lucidum, and its close relative Ganoderma tsugae, grow in the northern Eastern Hemlock forests. These two species of bracket fungus have a worldwide distribution in both tropical and temperate geographical regions, including North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia, growing as a parasite or saprotroph on a wide variety of trees. Similar species of Ganoderma have been found growing in the Amazon. In nature, Lingzhi grows at the base and stumps of deciduous trees, especially maple.Only two or three out of 10,000 such aged trees will have Lingzhi growth, and therefore its wild form is generally rare. Today, Lingzhi is effectively cultivated both indoors under sterile conditions and outdoors on either logs or woodchip beds.

History

The Chinese classics first used zhi during the Warring States Period (475-221 BCE) and lingzhi during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE).

The word lingzhi was first recorded in a fu "rhapsody; prose-poem" by the Han dynasty polymath Zhang Heng (CE 78–139).

The (ca. 1st-2nd century CE) Shennong bencao jing "Divine Farmer's Classic of Pharmaceutics" classifies zhi into six color categories, each of which is believed to benefit the qi "life force" in a different part of the body:

- qingzhi "green mushroom" for liver, 

-chizhi "red mushroom" for heart, 

-huangzhi "yellow mushroom" for spleen, 

-baizhi "white mushroom" for lung,

-heizhi "black mushroom" for kidney,

-and zizhi "purple mushroom" for essence. Commentators identify this red chizhi (or danzhi "cinnabar mushroom") as the lingzhi.

Chinese pharmaceutical handbooks on zhi mushrooms were the first illustrated publications in the history of mycology. The historian of Chinese science Joseph Needham discussed a no-longer extant Liang Dynasty (502-587) illustrated text called Zhong Shenzhi "On the Planting and Cultivation of Magic Mushrooms".

The (1444) Ming Dynasty edition Daozang "Daoist canon" contains the Taishang lingbao zhicao pin "Classifications of the Most High Divine Treasure Mushroom Plant", which categorizes 127 varieties of zhi. A (1598) Ming reprint includes woodblock pictures.

In Chinese art, the lingzhi symbolizes good health and long life, as depicted in the imperial Forbidden City and Summer Palace. It was a talisman for good luck in the traditional culture of China, and the goddess of healing Guanyin is sometimes depicted holding a lingzhi mushroom.

Research and therapeutic usage

Lingzhi may possess anti-tumor, immunomodulatory and  immunotherapeutic  activities, supported by studies on polysaccharides, terpenes, and other bioactive compounds isolated from fruiting bodies and myceliaof this fungus (reviewed by R. R. Paterson and Lindequist et al.). It has also been found to inhibit platelet aggregation, and to lower blood pressure (via inhibition of angiotensin-converting enzyme), cholesterol, and blood sugar.

Laboratory studies have shown anti-neoplastic effects of fungal extracts or isolated compounds against some types of cancer, including epithelial ovarian cancer. In an animal model, Ganoderma has been reported to prevent cancer metastasis, with potency comparable to Lentinan from Shiitake mushrooms.

The mechanisms by which G. lucidum may affect cancer are unknown and they may target different stages of cancer development: inhibition of angiogenesis (formation of new, tumor-induced blood vessels, created to supply nutrients to the tumor) mediated by cytokines, cytoxicity, inhibiting migration of the cancer cells and metastasis, and inducing and enhancing apoptosis of tumor cells. Nevertheless, G. lucidumextracts are already used in commercial pharmaceuticals such as MC-S for suppressing cancer cell proliferation and migration.

Additional studies indicate that ganoderic acid has some protective effects against liver injury by viruses and other toxic agents in mice, suggesting a potential benefit of this compound in the treatment of liver diseases in humans, and Ganoderma-derived sterols inhibit lanosterol 14α-demethylase activity in the biosynthesis of cholesterol. Ganoderma compounds inhibit 5-alpha reductase activity in the biosynthesis of dihydrotestosterone.

Besides effects on mammalian physiology, Ganoderma is reported to have anti-bacterial and anti-viral activities. Ganoderma is reported to exhibit direct anti-viral with the following viruses; HSV-1, HSV-2, influenza virus, vesicular stomatitis.  Ganoderma  mushrooms are reported to exhibit direct anti-microbial properties with the following organisms; Aspergillus niger, Bacillus cereus, Candida albicans, and Escherichia coli.

References:

1- From  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia –Lingzhi.

2-"The pharmacological potential of mushrooms.". Lindequist, U.; Niedermeyer, T.H.J. ; Jülich, W.D. (2005). 

Straw mushroom

Straw mushroom

-Vietnamese name: Nấm rơm.

-Scientic name: Volvariella volvacea (Bulliard ex Fries) Singer.

-Comon name: paddy straw mushroom or just straw mushroom.

-Synomym name: syn. Volvaria volvacea, Agaricus volvaceus, Amanita virgata, Vaginata virgata).

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Basidiomycota
Class:	Agaricomycetes
Order:	Agaricales
Family:	Pluteaceae
Genus:	Volvariella
Species:	Volvariella.volvacea

Introduction

-Volvariella is a genus of mushrooms with deep salmon pink gills and spore prints. The genus is estimated to contain about 50 species.

List of some species of  Genus Volvariella mushrooms:

-Volvariella bombycina

-Volvariella caesiotincta

-Volvariella gloiocephala

-Volvariella hypopithys

-Volvariella jamaicensis

-Volvariella lepiotospora

-Volvariella peckii

-Volvariella speciosa

-Volvariella surrecta

-Volvariella volvacea

Many sources list Volvariella as a member of the Pluteaceae family, but recent DNA studies have revealed that Pluteus and Volvariella evolved separately and have very different DNA. These studies show that Volvariella is very closely related to "schizophylloid" mushrooms like Schizophyllum commune.

Some species of Volvariella are popular edibles in Europe, accounting for 16% of total production of cultivated mushrooms in the world.

-Volvariella volvacea (also known as paddy straw mushroom or just straw mushroom); is a species of edible mushroom cultivated throughout East and Southeast Asia and used extensively in Asian cuisines.

 In Chinese, they are called “cǎogū” (straw mushroom), in the Philippines they are called “kabuteng saging” (mushroom from banana), in Thai they are called “hed fang” and in Vietnamese they are called “nấm rơm”.

They are often available fresh in Asia, but are more frequently found in canned or dried form outside their nations of cultivation.

Straw mushrooms are grown on rice straw beds and picked immature, during the button or egg phase and before the veil ruptures. They are adaptable and take 4-5 days to mature, and are most successfully grown in subtropical climates with high annual rainfall. There is no record of their cultivation before the 19th century.

They resemble poisonous death caps, but can be distinguished by their pink spore print; the spore print is white for death caps. Despite this fact, many people, especially immigrants from South East Asia where the mushroom is common place, have been poisoned making this mistake.

Unfortunately, it is easy to mistake the death cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides), as well as some other Amanita species, for this edible species due to similarities in appearance. This mistake is the leading cause of lethal mushroom poisoning in the United States.

Volvariella and Amanita cannot be distinguished in the early "button stage", that, for many, is considered the best stage to collect Volvariella for consumption. Like Amanita, the paddy straw mushroom has a volva, or universal veil, so called because it is a membrane that encapsulates the entire mushroom when it is young. This structure breaks apart as the mushroom expands, leaving parts that can be found at the base of the stalk as a cup-like structure.

This distinctive species of Volvariella is apparently not native to North America, but it has been introduced to that continent by human activity and can be found in woodchips, compost, greenhouses, and gardens when conditions are right. Volvariella volvacea is a robust species for the genus, featuring a grayish brown cap that is streaked with silky fibrils. The prominent volva at the base of the stem is brown to nearly black.

Description

-Ecology: growing gregariously or in clusters; found in woodchips, greenhouses, gardens, compost piles, and similar locations; capable of appearing year-round, depending on climate but usually found in summer when outdoors; apparently widely distributed (in introduced settings) in North America, but more common east of the Great Plains.

-Cap: 5-16 cm; egg-shaped when young, expanding to convex or broadly conic, becoming broadly convex or nearly flat; dry; radially streaked with hairs; gray to brownish gray or grayish brown or nearly black when young, with a paler marginal area; soft; the margin not lined, but often splitting with age.

-Gills: Free from the stem; white becoming pink; close or nearly crowded.

-Stem: 4-14 cm long; up to 2 cm thick; tapering gradually to apex, with a swollen base; dry; whitish or brownish; silky; the base encased in a thick, sack-like volva that is brownish gray to nearly black above and whitish below.

-Flesh: White.

Other features

-Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

-Chemical Reactions: KOH negative on cap surface.

-Spore Print: Salmon pink.

-Microscopic Features: Spores 7-10.5 x 4.5-7 µ; more or less ellipsoid, or somewhat ovoid; smooth; inamyloid. Pleuro- and cheilocystidia variously shaped but mostly fusoid-ventricose; to about 115 x 35 µ. Pileipellis elements not gelatinized. Clamp connections absent.

Using

Straw mushroom is one of the best edible mushroom that could be grown in tropical climate within 8-12 days to fruit. It is one of the most highest protein content, fast growing  mushroom.

Thailand is the world largest straw mushroom producer which produce this mushroom more than 600,000 ton per annum. Anonbiotech Centre has been in this business to produce pure culture and active spawn for decades, one could visit their website at www.anonbiotec.com or www.anonworld.com/.

Some of Shouth East Asia countries produce straw mushroom as a  good and nutritious  food for using in their countries and exporting.

Source: Wiki pedia and www.anonworld.com.