Though this mushroom grows on the grasslands of Florida and South Carolina, USA, its main natural habitat is the mountainous district of Piedade in Sao Paulo, in southeastern Brazil, where it serves the people as a part of their diet. Spores of this famous mushroom, called "Cogmelo de Deus" (Mushroom of God) in Brazil, were brought to Japan in 1965--to the Iwade Mushroom Institute, which was established in 1963 in Tsu, Mie Prefecture--by a farmer of Japanese ancestry, Takehisa Furumoto, who lived inthe Piedade district. The spores were cultured, and in 1967 this mushroom was identified by a Belgian scientist, Dr. Heinemann, as Agaricus blazei Murill (Kawariharatake) belonging to the Aga-ricaceae family.
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