Volvariella bombycina (Schaeff.) Singer is a striking white mushroom with a silky-hairy cap that emerges from a large, sac-like volva, typically from wounds or hollows in living or dead hardwood trees. The free gills turn pink as the spores mature. It is a wood-inhabiting relative of the paddy straw mushroom V. volvacea and is cultivated on a small scale in Asia.
Widespread in temperate and subtropical zones of Europe, Asia and North America.
Characteristics
Cap: 5-20 cm, ovoid becoming convex to bell-shaped, white to pale yellowish, covered with long silky fibrils. Gills: free, crowded, white becoming pink. Stem: white, smooth, emerging from a thick, membranous, often brownish volva. No ring. Spore print: pink.
