"as beautiful as it is powerful"

posted by Melissa
This post is an informative piece on one of my favorite medicinal mushrooms, Reishi.  I use it for immune support and mood support, as many of my teachers and herbalist friends have described it as "grounding".   In fact, it is often used herbally as an adaptogen.  An adaptogenic plant or mushroom is one that is used as a tonic, a restorative, to bring the body back into a balanced state.

Below is a more in depth look at the mushroom, medicinally and otherwise.
All information is cited from Mycellium Running, by Paul Stamets, unless otherwise stated.


Reishi mushroom,    
Ganoderma lucidum


Other common names:   ling chi, ling zhi (Chinese for "tree of life mushroom"), the panacea polypore.

Ganoderma lucidum, from Wikipedia

Description:  It is kidney shaped and woody textured.  It grows 5-20cm in diameter and has a shiny surface that appears lacquered when moist and dulls as it dries.  The cap is dull red to reddish brown, and even black at times.  It often has a white area of new growth at the outer edge of the cap and white pores underneath.  Spores are brown.  Sometimes spores from the underside collect on the cap, giving a powdery brown look when it dries.

Natural Habitat/Distribution:  This saprophytic mushroom is found on a wide range of hardwoods.  It is found throughout the world, from the Amazon to the southern regions of the US and across most of Asia.  It is mostly found in warm subtropical regions and less in temperate climates.

Fragrance:  Musty, mealy, fungoid.  (I am guessing that means it smells like a mushroom.)

Natural Method of Cultivation:  Being a saprophytic, I know from PSMS class that it is one of the kinds of mushrooms that can be cultivated.  Indeed,  Stamets states that it grows well on logs, stumps, and buried blocks of sawdust spawn.  (The book is a great resource of you are thinking about cultivating mushrooms.)

Season and Temperature Range for Mushroom Formation:  Summer to early fall.  Temperature 60-95 degrees F.

Medicinal Properties:  Stamets cites studies showing that reishi is a direct antimicrobial, but is not anti-tumor as many other mushrooms have shown to be.  He points out that it is helpful for cancer patients by stimulating the production of macrophages, activating the host's production of natural killers cells, T cells and tumor necrosis factors. Many of the over 100 distinct polysaccharides and triterpenoids identified in the reishi mushroom demonstrate immunomodulatory properties.  

Did you have a "moss moment" today?

Seward Park "moss moment"

posted by Melissa


Chemistry and Alegbra have been consuming me...even more than what songs I will sing for karaoke month in December.  Sneak peek though, I am feeling kinda partial to Air Supply and "Stuck on You" by Lionel Richie. (admittedly, I thought it was sung by Kenny Rogers when I heard it in a bank today.  wow.)  I have another one, a real winner I am keeping in my back pocket...but you'll just have to wait.

The mushrooms are still pushing their way into my life, and I love learning more about them.  What I love most, is when I make it a priority to get out into nature to go hunting for mushrooms.  (Even if the dirty dishes are piling up in that cute little kitchen.)
Today we went to Seward Park, and it was truly magical.  I felt like I was five again, rubbing my hand against moss on a tree.  Moss the color of the wool carpet we had in my living room as a child in the 70's.  (I know, the color was darker in real life, mom.)  To say "I felt so alive," would be an understatement.

In an effort to involve my brain on these walks, and not just my exploding heart, we have been going to classes.  Yesterday evening was the second on a series of four classes that Amy and I are taking on "Beginning Mushroom ID."  It is hosted and taught by members of PSMS. (Puget Sound Mycological Society)  Our teacher was Danny Miller, and his knowledge of fungi coupled with a quick wit and one liner sense of humor, made for an enjoyable class.

We started at the basic classifications of life, learning that Fungi is one of the Kingdoms, just as are Plants and Animals.  The Fungi Kingdom shares qualities of each; needing to "eat" food (i.e. not able to make their own food such as plants do) like the Animal Kingdom does, but not being able to move around to gather that food, like the stationary Plant Kingdom.

Mushrooms are then categorized more and more.  Firstly, into two phylums: Ascomycota and  Basidiomycota.  The basidiomycetes are all the gilled mushrooms.  The ascomycetes are the more primitive of the mushrooms, and have not evolved from the pre-gill stages of spore storing.  From there they are further broken down into Order, Family, Genus and Species.  As mushroom foragers, we are interested in last two classifications when identifying specimens.

There is also a way to group mushrooms as far as their role in the ecosystem.

afternoon mushroom walk

posted by Melissa

Amy called me this afternoon and offered a quick, spontaneous walk through a park to look for mushrooms.  So, I put off my homework, hopped into her Zipcar and headed down the street to Interlaken Park.  We found a few different types of fungi, and I am looking through the Simon & Schuster's Guide to Mushrooms to try my best guess at identifying them.  As I flip through the pages, I feel thankful that we are attending the mushroom identification class this month.

This one above appears to be Trametes versicolor from the latin for "varying in color."  Other names for it include Polyporus versicolor and Coriolus versicolor.  Its habitat is on dead or living trunks and wood, both coniferous and broadleaf.  It is inedible, but only so due to its texture.   And remember, this is my first attempt at identifying a mushroom...please correct me if I am wrong.

My best guess for this next one above is Peziza vesiculosa, from the Latin for "with vesicles" because of the crenulate edge and the outer surface.  (For those of you, that like me, do not know what crenulate means; the definition is: having an irregularly wavy or serrate outline.  I should have remembered that from Botany.)  It is fairly edible.  My book says its habitat is solitary on the ground where perhaps a large herbivores dropping had been.  But I found this right up next to a tree...makes my wonder if my guess is correct.

This one reminds me of the versicolor fungus from above, but it is much thicker and alone instead of layered.  And I think the green is moss, not a varying color of the fungus.  I just don't know what this one is.  The more I look, in the book and online, the more confused I get.  I am starting to wonder if it even is a mushroom.

Urtica dioica

We also saw lots of beautiful moss and patches of nettles (Urtica dioica.)  Nettles or stinging nettles can be foraged as well.  It can be used to make soup, or tea, or into a tincture.  It is often used to help with allergies, but also as a spring tonic offering lots of  nourishing vitamins and minerals.  People used to use the fresh plant to "urticate" themselves to alleviate arthritis pain, the stinging would counteract the pain offering a brief reprise from the aches.

moss

It felt good to be "out in the woods" today, even if it was only a dense park within the city.  Everything is more magical, colors brighter, conversations easier.  There is less to compete with the flow of creativity and imagination that is constant in our minds, yet perhaps is often muffled by or overwhelmed by the activity of the city and suburbs.  Every time I step into the outdoors, even just far enough to where I can't see a house or a car, I wonder about the choice for convenience over the choice for space and tranquility.

Right now, I am happy where I am...but the questions arise nonetheless.

peace,
Melissa

PS...we did see a man with a patchwork bag swung over his shoulder walking two dogs, and both Amy and I thought...for just a minute...that he was going to offer us some mushrooms of the hallucinogenic variety after Amy told him what we were doing hunting around off the beaten path.  Turns out, he didn't.  

Found my first fungi!

By Amy Baranski

It's hanging out on my neighbor's lilac bush that shades out my veggie garden. I'll take a sample to the mushroom identification class on Thursday and let you know what it is.

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