Anne Marie Chaker, The Science Project You Can Eat . Wall Street Journal, Jan 26, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704698004576103981377557622.html
("Pennsylvania produces some 60% of the mushrooms grown in the U.S., according to the Mushroom Council")
My comment:
(a) Italian surname Simoni means father of simone, the latter being Italian version of Simon.
(b) shiitake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiitake
(sections 1 Taxonomy and naming & 2 Cultivation history)
(c) For Hen of the Woods, see Grifola frondosa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen_of_the_Woods
(In the United States' supplement market, as well as in Asian grocery stores, the mushroom is known by its Japanese name "Maitake", which means "dancing mushroom"; section 2 Use in traditional Oriental medicine)
From a web page in Taiwan: "舞茸原生於日本東北部的荒野深山中，外觀皺摺多、無邊、成串地長在橡樹的根部，彷彿一隻跳舞中的蝴蝶，故而得名."
(d)
(i) dowel (n; Middle English dowle; akin to Old High German tubili plug)
(ii) To use dowels make things simple, for mushroom spores are tiny.
"These sterilized birch plugs are spirally grooved and fully colonized by pure mushroom mycelium,"
Products for Log and Stump Cultivation. Fungi Perfecti.
http://www.fungi.com/plugs/index.html
The word fungi is plural form of fungus. Both are Latin.
I guess the company coined the word perfecti to rhyme with fungi. The Latin word for "finished, done" is perfectus--past participle of Latin "perficere" to carry out, from per- thoroughly + facere to make, do)
All English definitions are from www.m-w.com.
(iii) See photo No. 4 in
Andrea Bellamy, Growing shiitake mushrooms. May 10, 2008.
http://heavypetal.ca/tag/mushroom-plug-spawn/
(e) For button mushroom, see Agaricus bisporus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_mushroom
(native to grasslands in Europe and North America; In maturity, it is called a portobello; Both spellings of portabella (or portobella) and portobello are used)
(i) 洋菇 in Taiwan.
(ii) portebello (n)
* Etymology: perhaps alteration of Italian prataiolo, prataiuolo or dialect Italian pratarolo meadow mushroom, from prato meadow, from Latin pratum
* plural: portobellos also portobellas
* variants of spelling: portabella or portabello
(iii) The straw mushroom 草菇 is different. See Volvariella volvacea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvariella_volvacea
(f) For Lion's Mane mushroom, see Hericium erinaceus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hericium_erinaceus
(g) Blue Oyster mushroom: Pleurotus columbinus
Pearl Oyster mushroom: Pleurotus ostreatus 蠔菇 in Taiwan