Medicinal and tea
Reishi, lingzhi
Ganoderma lingzhi
Never eat a wild-foraged mushroom you identified from a website, this one included. Wild mushroom misidentification can be fatal, and no page can rule a specimen IN. This reference is about cultivated and shop-bought mushrooms only: species you buy, or grow from bought spawn, where there is nothing to identify. To identify anything wild, consult a qualified local expert holding the actual specimen, never a description on a screen.
Also sold as
- Lingzhi
- Ganoderma lucidum (European relative)
- Ganoderma tsugae (hemlock reishi)
In the kitchen
Flavour
Intensely bitter; it is not eaten as food.
Texture
Corky and woody, hard when mature. Prepared as a simmered tea or an extract, never chewed.
In the kitchen
Not a culinary mushroom. Sliced and simmered for hours into a bitter tea, or bought as a tincture or powder. Any health claims for it sit outside what this reference documents.
How it is cultivated
Substrate
Sterilised supplemented hardwood sawdust, or hardwood logs. Grown in a carbon-dioxide-rich container it forms the branched antler shape rather than a flat conk.
Fruiting temperature
21-27°C (70-80°F)
Humidity
90-95% relative humidity
How it is grown
Supplemented hardwood sawdust block, or logs
Time to first harvest
Roughly 2 to 4 months
How much, how long
One large conk or antler per block
Difficulty at home
Intermediate. Grows readily and looks striking, especially the antler form, but wants steady warmth and humidity.
What is worth knowing about it
A medicinal and ornamental mushroom rather than a food, grown for tea, extracts and its striking shape. The name is a cluster of related species: the East Asian cultivated lingzhi is now separated as Ganoderma lingzhi, distinct from the European Ganoderma lucidum and the North American hemlock reishi, Ganoderma tsugae.
Elsewhere on the site
Sources
- Wikipedia, Ganoderma lingzhi and Ganoderma lucidum
- Stamets, Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms
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