White Button Isolated Spore Syringe – 10cc
$20.00
White Button (Agaricus bisporus) is the classic cultivated mushroom recognized for its smooth white cap, compact form, pink-to-chocolate-brown maturing gills, and dark brown spores. Beneath its familiar appearance is an unusual reproductive system that gives A. bisporus its species name and makes this everyday mushroom surprisingly interesting under the microscope.
Product Description
White Button is the white cultivated form of Agaricus bisporus, one of the most extensively cultivated edible mushroom species in the world.
Young fruiting bodies develop with smooth white caps tightly closed around the stem. As the mushroom matures, the partial veil separates from the cap, revealing free gills that transition from pale pink through progressively darker shades of brown as pigmented spores develop. The veil leaves behind a ring around the stem.
Unlike pale-spored gourmet species such as oyster mushrooms and Lion’s Mane, A. bisporus produces a dark chocolate-brown spore deposit. Under microscopy, its basidiospores are smooth, pigmented, and broadly ellipsoid.
The species name bisporus points to an even more unusual characteristic. The common cultivated variety typically produces two basidiospores per basidium, and those spores frequently contain two compatible nuclei. This reproductive strategy, known as secondary homothallism or pseudohomothallism, allows much of the parental genetic combination to travel together within a single spore.
White Button is also ecologically different from many wood-growing gourmet mushrooms. A. bisporus is adapted to decomposed, humic-rich plant material and is considered a secondary decomposer.
It may be the most familiar mushroom in the grocery store, but familiar does not mean simple.
About this strain
White Button is a cultivated white form of Agaricus bisporus, a member of the family Agaricaceae.
Young mushrooms develop the compact, closed-cap appearance responsible for the name “button.” As they mature, the cap expands and exposes free gills that transition from pink toward chocolate brown as the spores develop.
Those spores are one of the species' most interesting characteristics. Mature A. bisporus produces a dark brown spore deposit composed of pigmented basidiospores. The common cultivated variety is predominantly bisporic, meaning a basidium typically produces two spores rather than four.
White Button also differs ecologically from many gourmet species. Rather than being primarily a wood decomposer, it is adapted to partially decomposed plant material and humic-rich environments.
White Button is proof that one of the most familiar mushrooms in the world can still have some of the strangest biology in the collection.
