All our mushroom cultures are only one to two transfers away from the 1st generation mother culture to ensure a vibrant, healthy, and fast-growing product.
Each liquid mushroom culture syringe contains 12 cc's of mycelium suspended in a nutrient broth solution or commonly referred to as a liquid culture. Unlike many vendors, our cultures do not contain honey, we use a special clear recipe so you can see exactly what you're getting. Your mushroom culture is guaranteed to arrive 100% viable and completely contamination-free ready to inoculate a substrate of your choice.
You may use your LC Syringe right away, or store it in its mylar container in the refrigerator for 6 months or longer!
Your order with us today will contain:
(1) sterile 12 ml syringe with locking cap and selected strain.
(1) mylar syringe sleeve for long-term storage.
(2) alcohol pads.
(1) 18 gauge needle.
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Worldwide shipping makes us the most turned to mushroom culture producer/distributor in the world. If you canï¾’t find it in your country, we have you covered and our shipping time is considerably less than what you may expect.
Strain information:
Oyster Mushroom Pleurotus Ostreatus
So variable in size, shape and colour are the many kinds of oyster mushroom that confident identification of some species is tricky without resorting to microscopic analysis. The process is not helped by the fruiting habit of many Pleurotus species that seem to delight in emerging beyond reach, sometimes high up in the crowns of trees.
For the most part the various oyster mushrooms are saprophytic on deciduous trees, and only very rarely are they found on conifers. Pleurotus ostreatus is particularly fond of beech stumps but occurs also on several other hardwoods.
Pleurotus ostreatus - Oyster Mushroom
Distribution
Pleurotus ostreatus, the Oyster Mushroom, occurs throughout Britain and Ireland as well as in most parts of mainland Europe. It is also widely distributed throughout much of Asia, including Japan, and is present in parts of North America. A remarkable feature of these gilled fungi is their ability to trap and feed upon nematode worms using 'lassos' made of hyphae on their gills.
Several similar species within the Pleurotus genus are often confused, and so distribution data for individual species in this complex group are inevitably subject to some uncertainty.
Oyster Mushrooms on a 'Cabage Tree', Isle of Bute
Taxonomic history
The Oyster Mushroom was first described scientifically in 1775 by Dutch naturalist Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin (1727 - 1817) and named Agaricus ostreatus. (In the early days of fungus taxonomy most of the gilled mushrooms were included in the genus Agaricus.) In 1871 German mycologist Paul Kummer transferred the Oyster Mushroom to the genus Pleurotus (a new genus that Kummer himself had defined in 1971), giving it its currently accepted scientific name.
Pleurotus ostreatus, Oyster Mushroom, on a fallen branch
Synonyms of Pleurotus ostreatus include Agaricus ostreatus Jacq., Crepidopus ostreatus (Jacq.) Gray, and Pleurotus columbinus Quel. The blue-grey-capped form of this mushroom is referred to by some authorities as Pleurotus ostreatus var. columbinus (Quel) Quel.
Etymology
The generic name Pleurotus is Latin for ‘side ear’ and refers to the lateral attachment of the stem; ostreatus is a reference to oysters, and in shape the fruitbodies often do resemble oyster shells.
The specimens shown on this page demonstrate just how variable Oyster Mushrooms can be - not only in colour and form but also in their growing habitat. From the top: on a dead Beech trunk; next on a standing live (but surely dying) Cabbage Palm; and finally on a dead branch broken fallen from an old Ash tree.
Identification guide
Pleurotus ostreatus var columbinus
Cap
White, cream, brown, or blue-grey (var. columbinus - picture, left); usually bracket-like with either a radial stem or an eccentric stem; convex gradually becoming centrally depressed with a wavy margin; 5 to 18cm across; often in overlapping groups but with each stem separately attached to the substrate.
Gills of Pleurotus ostreatus, Oyster Mushroom
Gills
White, turning pale ochre with age; crowded; decurrent.
Stem
White or cream; woolly at base; sometimes stemless but usually with short stems 1 to 3cm long and 1 to 2cm diameter; tapering towards the base; no stem ring.
Spores of Pleurotus ostreatus, Oyster Mushroom
Spores
Subcylindrical to narrowly kidney-shaped, smooth, 8-12.5 x 3-4.5µm.
Spore print
White or more often pale lilac-grey.
Odour/taste
Smell and taste pleasant but not distinctive.
Habitat & Ecological role
Oyster Mushrooms are sometimes weakly parasitic but more often saprobic and found on dying or dead standing deciduous broadleaf trees, particularly Beech and oaks and sometimes on fallen trunks and large branches.
Season
Summer, autumn and early winter in Britain and Ireland; Oyster Mushrooms have a longer season in parts of southern Europe, where these edible fungi can sometimes be found through to January or February.
Similar species
Pleurotus dryinus has a frosted cap; its stem has a short-lived ring.
Pleurotus ostreatus, Oyster Mushroom, on a fallen beech trunk, Scotland
Culinary Notes
Pleurotus ostreatus, the Oyster Mushroom, is edible and is said to taste like its bivalve namesake as well as copying its shape; it is very similar in texture, too - rather flaccid compared with, say, familiar Agaricus species such as Field Mushrooms. These mushrooms are now produced in cultivation and readily available in supermarkets in Britain and Ireland, while in many European countries wild Oyster Mushrooms are much sought after in deciduous forests. We enjoy them in mixed mushroom meals, but on their own the texture of Oyster Mushrooms is rather limp and not our favourite.
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