While commercial harvesting of wild mushrooms continues today, most of the world’s supply comes from commercial mushroom growers. The Chinese first cultivated Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) mushrooms around 1,100 AD, with domestication efforts beginning century’s earlier. The white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), which are most familiar to Americans and Europeans, was first domesticated in France in 1650. The first truffle plantation took place in Italy and France in 1970s. For approximately 160 years, A. bisporus was grown in open fields. At some point, it was realized that mycelium, or what is referred to as the spawn of the mushroom, was what gave rise to the fruiting bodies and could be utilized much like the seed of plants to grow mushrooms. The first cultivation in a cave (i.e. production year round) began in Paris around 1800 and during the 19th century production of spawn by industrial spawn producers began. The first experimental culture of mycelium from spores was carried out by Costantin and Matruchot in Paris at the Pasteur Institute, whereas the first strain isolation from cultures from mushroom tissue was by Boyer. The first white cultivar derived from a white capped button mushroom was from a culture in the USA in 1926 ; and the first commercial hybrid strains were developed by Fritsche. Commercial production of mushrooms began in the United States in the 1880s.