Detailed Explanation of Bonsai Lingzhi Shaping Techniques

Lingzhi [Ganoderma lucidum (Leyss. ex Fr.) Karst], also known as lingzhi grass, lingzhi immortal grass, woody lingzhi, auspicious grass, and ten-thousand-year mushroom, belongs to the phylum Fungi, subphylum Basidiomycotina, order Polyporales, family Polyporaceae, genus Ganoderma. It is a perennial woody fungal plant, mainly growing in the high mountain primeval forests of Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Tibet and other provinces and regions.

Lingzhi has a distinctive form and brilliant colors, and since ancient times it has been a symbol of wealth and auspiciousness, as well as a brilliant pearl in the treasure house of Chinese medicine. In the Eastern Han period, the Shennong Bencao Jing listed lingzhi as a top-grade substance (effective and non-toxic), believing that "eaten over a long time, it lightens the body and prevents aging, extending life like an immortal." Pharmacological experiments have proven that lingzhi has excellent effects on regulating the human endocrine system, enhancing antibodies and metabolism, and inhibiting aging. It has obvious anti-tumor, anti-radiation, blood sugar-lowering, liver-protecting and detoxifying effects, and especially has good preventive and therapeutic effects on cardiovascular diseases, neurasthenia, hepatitis, asthma, diabetes and various other chronic diseases.

China is rich in lingzhi resources and is known as "the hometown of lingzhi," and it is now widely cultivated artificially. The making of lingzhi bonsai is an emerging craft that combines modern biological technology with traditional bonsai shaping art. By utilizing the biological characteristics of lingzhi, through controlling the conditions of its growth environment, combined with artificial branch cutting, approach grafting, chemical drug treatment and other means, lingzhi of different forms is cultivated, and then combined with mountain stones, tree stumps, dead wood, etc., to become a superb work of art with myriad postures, rustic elegance, peculiar shapes and extremely high taste. In the international market, especially in Japan, Southeast Asia and other regions, lingzhi bonsai attracts much attention.

The lingzhi used for making bonsai we may for now call "bonsai lingzhi," and it can be cultivated in glass bottles or plastic bags. During the mycelium culture stage, management can be carried out according to bottle (bag) cultivation requirements. After the primordium appears, special treatment can then be carried out according to different needs. The shaping techniques for bonsai lingzhi can be summarized as follows:

1 Single-stem growth

After the primordium appears, lower both the temperature and humidity of the culture room. The culture conditions no longer suit primordium differentiation, the color around the mushroom bud deepens and ages, forming a leathery crust. The mushroom bud stops growing and extends upward to form a stipe. Then raise the temperature and humidity back to a suitable range. After the stipe grows out of the bottle mouth, it quickly forms a cap. If temperature and humidity are intermittently adjusted during this period, branches of varying lengths will appear on the stipe.

2 Thickening of the cap and formation of mother-and-child caps

For lingzhi that has formed a cap but has not stopped growing, culturing under poor ventilation conditions will form a thickened cap. If these conditions are maintained thereafter, the thickened part of the cap can extend a secondary stipe. Then, if ventilation is provided, one or more small caps can form on the secondary stipe. Mechanical stimulation can also induce the formation of small caps. Use a sterilized steel needle or small knife to gently prick the back of the lingzhi cap (when the marginal growth point is nearly stopping) or along the crust, forming a scar. If suitable growth conditions are maintained, a short stipe will emerge from the scar and quickly form a small cap, thus forming a mother-and-child cap.

3 Double cap

Cover a young tender cap in the vigorous growth stage with a paper tube, allowing light to enter from the top. The cap will stop lateral growth and grow a small protrusion from the cap surface. If culturing continues, the protrusion can extend into a stipe. At this point, remove the paper tube and continue culturing under suitable conditions, keeping the culture bottle in its original position and orientation unchanged; the protrusion will then differentiate into a cap, thus becoming a double cap.

4 Brain-shaped cap

The normal cap of lingzhi is semicircular, kidney-shaped, and sometimes round. In order to cultivate a brain-shaped cap and enhance the ornamental value of bonsai lingzhi, when the spawn grows out of the bottle mouth and begins to differentiate into a cap, frequently and substantially adjust the temperature and humidity of the culture room, causing large fluctuations, while controlling ventilation and light conditions; this will form an irregular brain-shaped fruiting body.

5 Clustered caps

Through artificial control, make the culture room extremely poorly ventilated and the carbon dioxide concentration extremely high. The differentiated primordium then cannot grow and develop normally and becomes irregular columnar structures. At this point, improve ventilation conditions, and clustered caps will grow and develop on the irregular columnar structures.

6 Formation of antler-like branching

When the culture temperature, humidity and light all meet the growth requirements of lingzhi, if carbon dioxide accumulates too much and the concentration reaches above 0.1%, many branches will form on the stipe. The higher up, the more branches there are, and they gradually become thinner. The tip of the stipe never forms a cap, instead forming antler-like branching.

7 Stipe approach grafting

According to the shaping needs of lingzhi bonsai, fix the tips of 2 or several stipes together with fine thread, or use a sterilized knife to pare away a small portion of the tender crust and then bind them together with fine thread. After healing, remove the fine thread, and the several stipes can join into one body.

8 Forced shaping

For growing lingzhi individuals, by tying them with plastic film into simple shapes such as curves and scars, force them to grow according to a certain shape, and then through artificial trimming and pruning, various shapes can be formed.

9 Drug stimulation

Smear alcohol and other drugs on the tip of a growing stipe to stimulate its growth, and stipes that are thick, have side branches, and have laterally growing and scarred caps can appear.

10 Formation of multi-colored fruiting bodies

After the lingzhi fruiting body has formed, under conditions of sufficient scattered light, pigments deposit on the cell walls, deepening the surface color of the fruiting body and giving it a certain luster. During the formation of the fruiting body, changes in light intensity can be used to change its color, thereby forming multi-colored fruiting bodies.

11 Light-induced culture

Lingzhi fruiting bodies have strong phototropism. Utilizing this biological characteristic, during the process of culturing antler-like branching, fixing the light source and occasionally changing the direction of the culture bottle, or changing the light source while keeping the culture bottle still, can both cause the fruiting body to form twisted, gnarled dead-tree-branch shapes. After the cap has formed, the same method can be used to form various kinds of caps.

The cultivation of shaped lingzhi is the foundation of making lingzhi bonsai. Shaped lingzhi still needs to undergo polishing, decorative processing, or treatment such as soaking in preservative and coating with a protective film, and then is either glued onto a base, or placed into a ceramic pot and fixed with filler, or set off with other materials, and then given a figurative name according to the form of the lingzhi. Only then is a fine lingzhi bonsai artwork considered complete.