Ganoderma lucidum, Lingzhi mushroom
Remember the mushrooms I pulled out of the yard a couple of months ago? I left them in the garage for about a week and thought they had died. After reading about what a powerful herbal medicine they were, I stuck them back in the ground, and take a look at them now. These are in the middle of our back yard and still growing all these months later.
The one pictured to the right is the size of my open hand. The other one is even larger than both my hands put together. They are growing on top of a location where we had a tree removed and its trunk ground into the ground.
I sent off the pictures to a mycologist who helped me identify the mushrooms. These are called Ganoderma lucidum, or lingzhi. The more I read about this mushroom online, the more I want to care for it. I’ve been mowing around it and hand clipping the grass around it them. If you know something about this mushroom, do you have any advice?
Way cool! Wondering what kind of herbal medicine, what it treats, how you prepare it, etc.?
THat Wikipedia link was pretty good, but most websites say to slice them and brew them in a tea. It will taste very bitter.
I’m not going to try it unless I have someone actually in the yard and identify it, but from what I read it has some proven anti-tumor properties. There is a lot of folk lore associated with the plant, but people are studying it’s stated effects in herbal remedies dating back 2,000 years ago. It’s refered to by chinese herbal medicine as the top herbal remedy. It’s very rare and grows on decaying wood. In our yard, there is a ground deciduous tree stump under where they grow.