Button Mushroom

Button mushroom: Agaricus bisporus, these mushrooms were first cultivated in France in 1650. Today they are among the most commonly consumed mushrooms in the world, and are grown in over 70 countries. The mushroom is not a plant, it is a fungus, one of the major differences between the two, is that fungi have chitin in their cell walls, whereas plants have cellulose in theirs. Chitin is also found in exoskeletons of arthropods such as spiders, crabs, shrimp, etc. On average, Americans eat 4 lbs. of mushrooms per person each year.