6 Wood Discoloration

9.2 Cultivation of Edible Mushrooms 239
About 120 million myco-wood pencils were produced in the GDR from 1958
to 1961. The microbially modified wood also showed faster water absorption
and desorption and was thus used for wood forms of the glass industry. Due
to water-vapor film between wood and glass, it was possible to produce 12,000
goblets using a myco-wood form instead of 800 glasses using normal wood
(Luthardt 1963). Attempts to produce myco-wood also took place with tropical
woods (Eusebio and Quimio 1975; Arenas et al. 1978) and bamboo (W. Liese,
pers. comm.).
9.2
Cultivation of Edible Mushrooms
Although actual data could not be obtained, the worldwide production of edible
mushrooms cultivated on straw and wood may be in the range of 2 million t
(fresh weight basis) per year (Table 9.2), so that the cultivation of mushrooms
represents the economically most important microbial conversion of lignocelluloses
(Chang and Hayes 1978).
Without knowledge of the biological background, about 2,000 years ago,
the Shii-take, Lentinula edodes, (Fig. 2.17a) was already cultivated on wood
Table 9.2. Production of edible mushrooms (after various reports in the journal “Der
Champignon”)
Year (× 1,000 t) (%)
Mushrooms worldwide 1991 4,273 100
Agarics (Agaricus spp.) 1,590 37.2
Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus spp.) 917 21.5
Auricularia spp., Tremella spp. 605 14.2
Shii-take (Lentinula edodes) 526 12.3
Enoki (Flammulina velutipes) 187 4.4
Nameko (Pholiota nameko) 40 0.9
Grifola frondosa 2005 35
Mushrooms worldwide 1997 6,344 100
China 4,000 63.1
Japan, Taiwan, Korea, etc. 1,005 15.8
EU 908 14.3
North America 431 6.8
Shii-take worldwide 1997 1,322 100
China 1,125 85.1
Japan 133 10.0
Taiwan, Korea 44 3.4
EU 0.995
France 0.450
Germany 0.150
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