Did you know that eventhough 2,000 varieties of mushrooms are edible, only a handful have become important in creating nutritious and healthy dishes? The “whites,” or common button agaricus are the mushrooms most familiar to buyers worldwide . Variant agaricus such as criminis and portabellas, are known as the “browns.” Shiitake (shee tah kay), oyster, wood ear and Inoki (e nok e) mushrooms are also popular. The consumption of mushrooms per capita was 3 pounds in 2009 with 2.2 pounds being fresh mushrooms and 0.8 pound being processed mushrooms.