An edible, brown-capped, ringed Cyclocybe that is widely grown in China, sold under the trade name 'chashugu', and valued for its crisp stem and tender cap (Yang et al. 2025). It was long confused with the European pioppino (C. aegerita) and with C. cylindracea and C. salicaceicola. Multilocus phylogeny separates an Asian lineage, provisionally called C. chaxingu agg., from European C. aegerita (Frings et al. 2020), and the name was validly published as a Cyclocybe combination in 2025 (Yang et al.).
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Mycology is an evolving science: names, classifications and safety information change as research advances. Entries are compiled from cited sources and reviewed, but may be incomplete or out of date — check the sources, and never rely on this library alone to identify or eat a mushroom.
Habitat
Saprobic. Known mainly from cultivation. The Asian-lineage strains studied by Frings et al. (2020) came from Jilin, from market mushrooms in Yunnan or Sichuan, from a Chinese grower strain, and from Thailand and India. Its wild substrate and hosts were not given in the sources read.
Distribution
China, where it is widely cultivated (Yang et al. 2025). Strains of the Asian lineage (C. chaxingu agg.) are also known from Thailand and India (Frings et al. 2020).
Characteristics
Cap: convex-lens shaped at maturity, smooth. Dark brown when young, becoming brown or light brown, darker at the centre and paler at the margin. Gills: white at first, turning brown. Stem: nearly cylindrical, greyish white, with fine lengthwise fibres. Ring: membranous and thin, browned by falling spores, becoming fragile with age. Spore print: brown (Yang et al. 2025). In fruiting trials, Asian-lineage strains produced larger fruit bodies with longer stems and wider caps than European C. aegerita, and had longer spores (Frings et al. 2020).
Difficulty
Intermediate
Growth speed
Moderate
Contamination risk
High
Substrates
Cottonseed hull, sawdust and bagasse mix with bran and soy meal (Yang et al. 2025)
