Hello everyone,

Firstly, I need to apologise for not being a scientist, just a member of Joe Public who would like to be pointed in the right direction with a scientific enquiry. I also don’t know if this question should be published elsewhere on this network but thought if I put it here first then it can be shot down in flames with minimal loss of life!

So, please be gentle – I’m worried about those tags, never done those before – but I think the question is of interest.

Agrocybe rivulosa is a fungus. It is a basidiomycete with ‘mushroom-type’ fruiting bodies. It was first described in 2003, not as a result of splitting, or raising a variety or form or subspecies to species level, but as a completely new thing. It is currently exploding all over a woodchip pile near you and has been doing so all year since May. It is closely related to Agrocybe cylindracea which is a good, edible species which is cultivated commercially as food and for medicinal purposes.

As far as I know, there is no work being done on the toxicity of A.rivulosa; whether or not it is edible; whether or not it can be cultivated commercially.

Does anyone here know differently? And is anyone here interested in pursuing this line of research? Or, if I’m barking up the wrong tree, can you point me in the direction of the right tree?

Thanks for reading, and all help that anyone can give me will be most gratefully received.

Keir Mottram