Ganoderma lingzhi ,Gourmet Mushroom Culture (Copy)

Lingzhi, Ganoderma lingzhi, also known as reishi, is a polypore fungus (“bracket fungus”) native to East Asia belonging to the genus Ganoderma.

Its reddish brown varnished kidney-shaped cap with bands and peripherally inserted stem gives it a distinct fan-like appearance. When fresh, the lingzhi is soft, cork-like, and flat. It lacks gills on its underside, and instead releases its spores via fine pores (80–120 μm) in yellow colors.[1]

The lingzhi mushroom is used in traditional Chinese medicine.[1][2] There is insufficient evidence to indicate that consuming lingzhi mushrooms or their extracts has any effect on human health or diseases.[3][4][5]

In nature, it grows at the base and stumps of deciduous trees, especially that of the maple. Only two or three out of 10,000 such aged trees will have lingzhi growth, and therefore its wild form is rare.[citation needed] Lingzhi may be cultivated on hardwood logs, sawdust, or woodchips.

Taxonomy and ecology
Lingzhi, also known as reishi from its Japanese pronunciation, is the ancient “mushroom of immortality”, revered for over 2,000 years. Uncertainty exists about which Ganoderma species was most widely utilized as lingzhi mushroom in ancient times, and likely a few different common species were considered interchangeable. However, in the 16th century Chinese herbal compendium, the Bencao Gangmu (1578), a number of different lingzhi-like mushrooms were used for different purposes and defined by color. No exact current species can be attached to these ancient lingzhi for certain, but according to Dai et al. (2017),[6] as well as other researchers, and based on molecular work, red lingzhi is most likely to be Ganoderma lingzhi (Sheng H. Wu, Y. Cao & Y.C. Dai, 2012).[7][1] This is the species that is most widely found in Chinese herb shops today, and the fruiting bodies are widely cultivated in China and shipped to many other countries. About 7-10 other Ganoderma species are also sold in some shops, but have different Chinese and Latin names, and are considered different in their activity and functions. The differences are based on concentrations of triterpenes such as ganoderic acid and its derivatives, which vary widely among species. Research on the genus is ongoing, but a number of recent phylogenetic analyses have been published in the last number of years. [8]

Nomenclature
Petter Adolf Karsten named the genus Ganoderma in 1881.[9] English botanist William Curtis gave the fungus its first binomial name, Boletus lucidus, in 1781.[10] The lingzhi’s botanical names have Greek and Latin roots. Ganoderma derives from the Greek ganos (γανος; “brightness”), and derma (δερμα; “skin; together; shining skin”).[11] The specific epithet, lingzhi, comes from Chinese, meaning “divine mushroom.”

With the advent of genome sequencing, the genus Ganoderma has undergone taxonomic reclassification. Prior to genetic analyses of fungi, classification was done according to morphological characteristics such as size and color. The internal transcribed spacer region of the Ganoderma genome is considered to be a standard barcode marker.[12]

Varieties
It was once thought that Ganoderma lingzhi generally occurred in two growth forms: a large, sessile, specimen with a small or nonexistent stalk, found in North America, and a smaller specimen with a long, narrow stalk, found mainly in the tropics. However, recent molecular evidence has identified the former, stalkless, form as a distinct species called G. sessile, a name given to North American specimens by William Alfonso Murrill in 1902.[8][13]

Environmental conditions play a substantial role in the lingzhi’s manifest morphological characteristics. For example, elevated carbon dioxide levels result in stem elongation in lingzhi. Other formations include antlers without a cap, which may also be related to carbon dioxide levels. The three main factors that influence fruit body development morphology are light, temperature, and humidity. While water and air quality play a role in fruit body development morphology, they do so to a lesser degree.[14]

Habitat
Ganoderma lingzhi is found in East Asia growing as a parasite or saprotroph on a variety of trees.[15] Ganoderma curtisii and Ganoderma ravenelii are the closest relatives of the lingzhi mushroom in North America.[16]

In the wild, lingzhi grows at the base and stumps of deciduous trees, especially that of the maple.[17] Only two or three out of 10,000 such aged trees will have lingzhi growth, and therefore it is extremely rare in its natural form.[citation needed] Today, lingzhi is effectively cultivated on hardwood logs or sawdust/woodchips.[18]