Mushroom Facts (2024)

General

  • Mushrooms double in size every 24 hours.
  • Pennsylvania mushroom growers have William Swayne to thank for the long tradition of PA mushroom growing. The successful Kennett Square, PA, florist conceived the idea of growing mushrooms beneath his greenhouse benches in the late 1800s.
  • Mushrooms are 90% water
  • Mushrooms do not need sunlight to grow.
  • The most popular mushroom variety grown in the U.S. is white button, followed by crimini (brown or baby bellas), portabellas, enoki, oyster, maitake and shiitake.
  • Mushrooms are grown and harvested year-round.
  • Store mushrooms in original packaging or in a porous paper bag for prolonged shelf life.
  • To clean mushrooms, brush off any debris with fingers or a damp paper towel, or rinse briefly and pat dry with a paper towel.

How Mushrooms Grow

  • It takes about three weeks to produce the first mushrooms for harvest. Throughout the growing period, mushroom farmers play Mother Nature, manipulating water, airflow, temperature fluctuation and more.
  • Farmers combine materials like hay, straw, corn cobs, cocoa shells, and horse or chicken manure and place them in stacked wooden beds mixed with the spawn.
  • In a lab, cereal grains are inoculated with mushroom spores and incubated until they develop into spawn or ‘mushroom seeds.’
  • Every mushroom harvested in the U.S. is harvested by hand.

Nutrition

  • One Portabella mushroom has more Potassium than 1 medium banana.
  • Mushrooms are low in calories and sodium, and fat, cholesterol and gluten-free.
  • Scientists at City of Hope were some of the first to discover that mushrooms could suppress growth of breast cancer and prostate cancer cells in cell cultures and in animals. City of Hope researchers have conducted a small clinical trial in patients with prostate cancer.
  • Mushrooms are the leading source of the antioxidant nutrient selenium in the produce aisle. Antioxidants, like selenium, protect body cells from damage that might lead to chronic diseases and help to strengthen the immune system, as well. In addition, mushrooms provide ergothioneine, a naturally occurring antioxidant that may help protect the body’s cells.
  • Mushrooms are the only source of vitamin D in the produce aisle and one of the few non-fortified food sources.
  • All mushrooms contain some vitamin D, but mushrooms have the unique ability to increase vitamin D amounts due to UV-light or sunlight exposure. Similar to humans, mushrooms naturally produce vitamin D following exposure to sunlight or a sunlamp: mushrooms’ plant sterol – ergosterol – converts to vitamin D when exposed to light.

Sustainability

  • Mushroom growers are known as the ”ultimate recyclers“ for their ability to convert byproducts and waste from other sectors of agriculture into the compost or medium used to grow mushrooms. Because of this recycling of other agricultural crops and byproducts, mushroom farms have a smaller environmental footprint than almost any other farms.
  • Today’s growers use smart management and production practices that use less than 2 gallons of water to produce one pound of button mushrooms – that’s about 32 (8 oz) glasses of water to grow, harvest, and process an entire pound of mushrooms, compared with an average of 50 gallons of water per pound of other fresh produce items.
  • Mushrooms are a fairly low-energy footprint crop. Producing one pound of button mushrooms takes 1.0 kilowatt hour (kwh) of electricity. This is the same amount of energy (1 kwh) as it takes to run a coffeemaker for one hour each day.
  • From the compost recipe, all the way through to what you purchase in the store, one pound of mushrooms generates just 0.7 pounds of CO2 equivalents. By comparison, using one gallon of fuel emits nearly 20 pounds of CO2.
  • Mushrooms are grown year-round, across the nation, and don’t require much land. On average, one square foot of space in a mushroom bed can produce 6.55 pounds of mushrooms. One square foot is 144 square inches, or 4.5 red bricks in a patio– that’s a lot of production power in a small space.
  • One acre of land can produce 1 million pounds of mushrooms annually. In recent years, mushroom growers have produced just over 900 million pounds of Agaricus mushrooms each year. Put another way, one acre of land can produce enough mushrooms in a year to fill the length of nearly 4,700 football stadiums. Even more, 900 million pounds of mushrooms is enough to circle the circumference of the globe – mushroom cap to mushroom cap – 19 times!

Economic Impact (PA)

  • PA mushroom farms support more than 9,300 jobs and $313 million in compensation.
  • PA mushroom farms contribute $1.2 billion to the local economy.
  • Kennett Square, PA, has the largest concentration of mushrooms farms in the country. Nearly two-thirds of all mushroom production occurs in Southeastern PA.

Economic Impact (Nationwide)

  • U.S. mushroom farms support more than 21,000 jobs and $864 million in compensation.
  • U.S. mushroom farms contribute $3.3 billion to the economy.

Looking for mushroom recipes? Click here.

For additional information on mushrooms, their health benefits, recipes and more, visit the Mushroom Council.

Source: American Mushroom Institute, Mushroom Council

Mushroom Facts (2024)

FAQs

Mushroom Facts? ›

Instead of seeds, mushrooms produce spores, which are almost as fine as smoke. When spores land in a suitable place, they germinate, developing the fine filaments that eventually become a new mycelium. Mushrooms usually don't last very long. Once they've shed their spores, they collapse and deteriorate.

How old is the first mushroom? ›

According to a new study, the first mushrooms were already present on Earth between 715 and 810 million years ago, 300 million years earlier than the scientific community had believed until now.

What is the main purpose of a mushroom? ›

In general, the mushroom helps the tree extract minerals and water from the soil; in exchange, the tree supplies the mushroom with sugar compounds (carbohydrates).

Is A mushroom a fruit or a plant? ›

Mushrooms aren't really plants, they are types of fungi that have a "plantlike" form - with a stem and cap (they have cell walls as well). This is really just the "flower or fruit" of the mushroom - the reproductive part which disperses the spores.

What are 10 facts about fungi? ›

10 fun facts about fungi
  • The largest organism in the world (by area) is a fungus. ...
  • Fungi have a key role in cleaning the planet. ...
  • Fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants. ...
  • How many fungi are there? ...
  • People have been using fungi for over 5000 years. ...
  • Fungi are in all our homes...
Sep 20, 2023

Can fungi glow in the dark? ›

Bioluminescent Fungi.

Fungi produce an eerie green light on the mushroom caps. So far, scientists have discovered at least 81 out of 100,000 fungi worldwide with this remarkable ability. Therefore, only a small portion of known fungi produces light.

What is the 400 million year old mushroom? ›

Potteromyces asteroxylicola is 407 million years old. Hidden within the Natural History Museum of London's collection, researchers stumbled upon a treasure: a 407-million-year-old fossilized fungus, the oldest evidence of a disease-causing fungus ever found.

Who first ate a mushroom? ›

Mushroom use has firmly been identified from as early as the European Chalcolithic. The Chalcolithic Tyrolean Iceman “Ötzi” carried several types of fungi on his person.

What is the 1 billion-year-old mushroom fossil? ›

The billion-year-old fungus, called Ourasphaira giraldae, provides clues about how life may have evolved on land. In a new study, researchers discuss how the discovery of fungi like this one, which are more closely related to animals than plants, could indicate that animal ancestors were around 1 billion years ago.

What mushroom lives for? ›

It explores how the world looks to the mushrooms, as well as to the people who have grown rich harvesting them. A surprise-filled journey into science and human culture, this exciting and provocative book shows how fungi shape our planet and our lives in strange, diverse, and often unimaginable ways.

Is mushroom a plant or meat? ›

Although considered a vegetable, mushrooms are neither a plant nor animal food. They are a type of fungus that contains a substance called ergosterol, similar in structure to cholesterol in animals. Ergosterol can be transformed into vitamin D with exposure to ultraviolet light.

What organ is mushroom good for? ›

May Help Protect Against Cancer

Other research has shown mushrooms may also be protective against cancers of the liver, uterus, pancreas, and stomach, as well as acute leukemia.

Is A mushroom a living thing? ›

Mushrooms are living organisms, specifically belonging to kingdom Fungi. Mushrooms are made of cells and must gain energy in order to live. Mushrooms are often thought of as plants because they grow out of the soil. However, they are unable to undergo photosynthesis like plants do.

Is mushroom one of your 5 a day? ›

Consider mushrooms, sweetcorn and broccoli, and don't forget to add some tinned kidney beans, as these also count towards your 5-a-day. You can even reduce the amount of meat you would usually use and add extra beans instead, as they are a great source of protein and are cheaper than meat.

What animal is a mushroom? ›

Mushrooms are neither plants nor animals. They constitute their own kingdom: the Fungi. These include the familiar mushroom-forming species, as well as yeasts, molds, smuts, and rusts. Few of us see the entire life cycle of mushrooms, since most of it takes place underground or beneath the bark of dead or living trees.

What is unique to only fungi? ›

The fungal cell wall is made of a chitin-glucan complex; while glucans are also found in plants and chitin in the exoskeleton of arthropods, fungi are the only organisms that combine these two structural molecules in their cell wall. Unlike those of plants and oomycetes, fungal cell walls do not contain cellulose.

What makes fungi unique? ›

One of the major differences lies in their cells. Plant cells maintain their shape with a structure known as a cell wall, which is primarily made of cellulose. Fungi also have a cell wall, but instead it's made out of a material called chitin.

Are legos made of fungi? ›

Itaconic acid, an enzyme produced by fungi, is used to make Legos. The enzyme is also used in UV coatings and printing ink.

What are 2 positive things about fungi? ›

Fungi are useful for many other reasons.
  • They are a major source of citric acid (vitamin C).
  • They produce antibiotics such as penicillin, which has saved countless lives.
  • They can be genetically engineered to produce insulin and other human hormones.
  • They are model research organisms.
Mar 5, 2021

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