The distinctive wine cap stropharia edible mushroom is currently under trial planting in Jinzhu town. [Photo/lsnews.com.cn]

Jinzhu town in Suichang county – administered by Lishui city in East China's Zhejiang province – joined forces with the Yangtze Delta Region Research Institute of Tsinghua University, Zhejiang last year to trial plant the stropharia rugosoannulata, a new variety of mushroom for the region that could become a major industry.

The mushroom is, commonly known as the wine cap stropharia, is highly regarded for use in cooking in the US, where it is known as the King Stropharia or wine cap mushroom, the latter name because of its distinctive red head.

Locals said that judging from the preliminary data, the 0.8 hectares of trial planting will yield about 180,000 kilograms of wine cap stropharias this year. This will generate about 300,000 yuan ($47,119) to 360,000 yuan in income for the town, they added.

The wine cap stropharia is another new variety of edible mushroom being promoted in the town since the trial planting of morchella or morel mushrooms in Jinzhu in 2020.

"The unit price of wine cap stropharia is not as high as that of morchella, but the yield is very high, so the overall benefit is similar to that of the morchella," said Wang Yulong, director of the rural vitalization promotion center at the Yangtze Delta Region Research Institute of Tsinghua University, Zhejiang.

Moreover, the cultivation technology is relatively simple, so it is more suitable for large-scale growing, Wang added.