Grey, pink, golden, phoenix, Indian or Black Pearl: six oyster mushrooms, six characters

Almost every beginner starts with "an oyster mushroom", and almost nobody knows there are six different ones in our cold store. They share the fan shape and the gills running down the stem, but that is where the resemblance ends. One wants cold, another warmth. One is chewy like bacon, another falls apart if you look at it. Here is the family in a row, with what each member wants and what it is good at.

Common oyster: the all-rounder

Pleurotus ostreatus, grey-brown to blue-grey, the supermarket oyster mushroom but better. Wants cool, 12 to 20 degrees, which makes it the species for the utility room, the hallway and the garden. Grows on practically anything: straw, coffee grounds, sawdust and any broadleaf tree. Firm, meaty, mild in flavour, and the only one in the line-up we offer in all three forms: grow kit, spawn and plug spawn. If you choose only one, it is this one.

Pink oyster: the tropical sprinter

Pleurotus djamor, bright pink, from the tropics and it shows. Wants warmth, 20 to 30 degrees, and is the only one that does better in a heated living room than in a cool hallway. Grows at breakneck speed, pinhead to harvest in a week, and is over just as fast: harvest it young, because within a day of maturing it turns tough and droops. When fried it loses its colour and takes on a savoury flavour reminiscent of ham. For children and for winter indoors: grow kit or spawn. Outdoors only in a warm summer month.

Golden oyster: the fragile beauty

Pleurotus citrinopileatus, golden yellow, in clusters of dozens of small caps. Wants it warm, 18 to 28 degrees, and is the prettiest of the family on the table. The flip side: the caps are thin and break at the slightest touch, so you harvest the whole cluster at once and do not transport it. Nutty flavour, slightly sweeter than the common, and a brief fry is enough. Grow kit or spawn, and on logs only in sheltered, warm spots.

Phoenix oyster: the summer mushroom for logs

Pleurotus pulmonarius, paler than the common, with a thinner cap and longer stem. The big difference is temperature: where the common oyster stalls at 25 degrees, the phoenix just carries on. That makes it the oyster for logs that need to produce in summer, and for a bucket on a warm balcony. Mild flavour, a little softer than the common. Plug spawn for outdoors, spawn for the bucket.

Indian oyster: the warmth lover on straw

An Asian oyster with a grey-brown cap, lighter and thinner than the common, cultivated on straw on an enormous scale in South Asia. Wants warmth like the pink, but is less fussy and keeps longer in the fridge. Mild, slightly sweet flavour, soft texture. Mainly for anyone growing on straw or coffee grounds in a warm room: spawn. Less of a log species.

Black Pearl King: the hybrid with a stem like a steak

Not a wild species but a cross between the common oyster and the king oyster (Pleurotus eryngii). The result has the fan shape and ease of the first, and the thick, firm stem and meaty bite of the second. Dark, almost black caps at first, lightening as they grow. Wants cool like the common, grows on straw and wood, and is the firmest of the six in the pan: fry in thick slices as you would a king oyster. Spawn for the bucket, plug spawn for the log.

The choice in a table

The short version: cool spot and first time, take the common. Warm room or children, take the pink. Summer log, take the phoenix. Want something to slice like meat, take the Black Pearl King. And if you want to try all six, do it in two rounds: the three cool ones in winter, the three warm ones in summer. That way every member of the family gets the room it deserves.