What Are the Common Varieties of Wild Reishi Mushroom? A Guide to Identification Methods

Reishi mushroom is a valuable medicinal herb, often portrayed in period dramas as a life-saving immortal herb, always appearing in places that are difficult to harvest. Indeed, reishi mushroom has high medicinal value. Because wild ones are relatively rare, artificial cultivation is fairly common, though the cultivation requirements are also quite high. Today let us take a look at what the common varieties of wild reishi mushroom are and what the identification methods are.

I. What Are the Common Varieties of Wild Reishi Mushroom?

1. Flat-cap reishi (Ganoderma applanatum)

Flat-cap reishi is a perennial reishi variety. It has no stalk and is woody, and its cap is semicircular, somewhat like a kidney, though some forms are irregular.

2. Pine-needle bracket fungus (Fomitopsis pinicola)

Pine-needle bracket fungus is also a perennial variety. It is corky and has no stalk, and its cap is like a horse's hoof. Because it contains active substances such as eburicoic acid, it has anti-cancer effects.

3. Tropical reishi (Ganoderma tropicum)

Tropical reishi is an annual reishi variety. It has a stalk and is corky in texture, and its cap is also like a kidney, though there are also semicircular and round forms.

4. Spotted brown pore fungus (Fuscoporia punctata)

Spotted brown pore fungus is a perennial reishi variety. It has no cap and lies flat on the surface of the object it attaches to.

5. Red reishi (Ganoderma lucidum)

It is an annual reishi with a corky stalk, and its cap is also kidney-shaped; semicircular forms also occur, while round ones are relatively rare. This reishi variety also has a relatively short growth period.

II. Methods for Distinguishing Wild Reishi Mushroom from Cultivated Reishi Mushroom

1. Distinguish by color and shape

Wild reishi mostly grows deep in mountain forests or among scattered rocks and weeds. Its shape and color vary greatly depending on the growing environment, whereas cultivated reishi is relatively uniform, with roughly the same color and luster.

2. Distinguish by size

There are many varieties of wild reishi, with widely differing shapes and sizes, whereas cultivated reishi shows little difference in size. Moreover, artificially cultivated reishi grows in superior environments such as greenhouses, so it is much larger than wild reishi, and its form and color are also more consistent.

3. Check whether there are insect holes

Wild reishi more or less gets nibbled by insects, so most of it will have insect holes. Artificially cultivated reishi, however, is mostly sprayed with pesticides to kill insects, so it has almost no insect holes.

4. Smell the aroma and taste the flavor

Wild reishi has very high medicinal value. Its taste is very bitter, as the saying goes, “good medicine tastes bitter, and bitter medicine is good medicine.” Wild reishi basically has no smell, whereas reishi bought in pharmacies has a smell because it absorbs odors from other medicinal materials.

5. Check whether grass stems are entwined around it

Weeds grow densely in the wild. So it is inevitable that grass stems become entwined with the reishi, and may even pass through it.

6. Look at the mud on the reishi base

Wild reishi carries soil with it when collected. Moreover, wild reishi mostly does not grow in the same place, so the soil it carries will also differ, whereas that of cultivated reishi is basically the same.