shiitake

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Shiitake

shiitake
An edible eastern Asian mushroom (Lentinus edodes) having an aromatic, fleshy, golden or dark brown to blackish cap and an inedible tough stipe. Also called Chinese black mushroom, golden oak mushroom; Also called Oriental black mushroom.
[Japanese : shi, oak + take, mushroom.]
(© Houghton Mifflin Company)

It is generally known in the English-speaking world by its Japanese name, shiitake^[1] listen (help·info) (kanji: 椎茸; literally "shii mushroom", from the Japanese name of the tree that provides the dead logs on which it is typically cultivated).

In Chinese, it is called xiānggū (香菇, literally "fragrant mushroom"). Two Chinese variant names for high grades of shiitake are dōnggū (Chinese: 冬菇, "winter mushroom") and huāgū (花菇, "flower mushroom", which has a flower-like cracking pattern on the mushroom's upper surface); both are produced at colder temperatures. Other names by which the mushroom is known in English include Chinese black mushroom and black forest mushroom.