Shiitake

The Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) (from Japanese 椎茸, シイタケ (Shiitake)) is an edible mushroom native to East Asia, which is cultivated and consumed in many Asian countries, as well as being dried and exported to many countries around the world. It is a feature of many Asian cuisines including Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and Thai. In the East, the shiitake mushroom has long been considered a delicacy as well as a medicinal mushroom. Taxonomy and naming Shiitake comes from its Japanese name, shiitake. About this sound listen (help·info) (kanji: 椎茸; literally "shii mushroom", from "shii" the Japanese name of the tree Castanopsis cuspidata that provides the dead logs on which it is typically cultivated). In Chinese, it is called xiānggū (香菇, literally "fragrant mushroom"). Two Chinese variant names for high grades of shiitake are dōnggū (Chinese: 冬菇, "winter mushroom") and huāgū (花菇, "flower mushroom", which has a flower-like cracking pattern on the mushroom's upper surface); both are produced at lower temperatures. Other common names by which the mushroom is known in English include "Chinese black mushroom", "black forest mushroom", "black mushroom", "golden oak mushroom", or "oakwood mushroom". In Korean it is called pyogo (hangul: 표고), in Thai they are called het hom (เห็ดหอม, "fragrant mushroom"), and in Vietnamese they are called nấm hương ("fragrant mushroom"). The species was formerly known as Lentinus edodes and Agaricus edodes. The latter name was first applied by the English botanist Miles Joseph Berkeley in 1878.