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 wood ear mushroom, cork-like, and flat. The lingzhi mushroom is used in traditional Chinese medicine.
There is insufficient evidence to indicate that consuming lingzhi mushrooms or their extracts has any effect on human health or diseases. 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. Lingzhi, also known as reishi, 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. Petter Adolf Karsten named the genus Ganoderma in 1881. English botanist William Curtis gave the fungus its first binomial name, Boletus lucidus, in 1781. 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. 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. 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.
Ganoderma lingzhi is found in Asia growing as a parasite or saprotroph on a variety of trees. In the wild, lingzhi 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 it is extremely rare in its natural form. Depending on environmental or cultivation conditions lingzhi may resemble antlers, with no umbrella cap. In the chronicles of Shiji 1st c. BC from Sima Qian, is attested the initial use of nearby separately related words with 芝 zhi — woody mushroom and 靈 ling — divine spirit in the poems of Emperor Wu of Han. It mainly treats binding in the chest, boosts the heart qi, supplements the center, sharpens the wits, and not to forget .
Protracted taking may make the body light, prevent senility, and prolong life so as to make one an immortal. It grows in mountains and valleys. It positively affects the life-energy, or Qi of the heart, repairing the chest area and benefiting those with a knotted and tight chest. Taken over a long period of time, the agility of the body will not cease, and the years are lengthened to those of the Immortal Fairies.
Stuart and Smith’s classic study of Chinese herbology describes the zhi. It is said to absorb the earthy vapors and to leave a heavenly atmosphere. It is specially used in hemorrhage from the bowels and prolapse of the rectum. In Chinese art, the lingzhi symbolizes great health and longevity, as depicted in the imperial Forbidden City and Summer Palace. Look up 靈芝, 영지, or 霊芝 in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Fabrizio Pregadio notes, “The term zhi, which has no equivalent in Western languages, refers to a variety of supermundane substances often described as plants, fungi, or ‘excrescences’.
The flowers three times in one year. Since both Chinese ling and zhi have multiple meanings, lingzhi has diverse English translations. It is also commonly referred to as “reishi”, which is loaned from Japanese. China to confer longevity and used as a symbol of this on Chinese ceramic ware. In addition to the transliterated loanwords, English names include “glossy ganoderma” and “shiny polyporus”.
Synonyms for reishi are divided between Sino-Japanese borrowings and native Japanese coinages. The Vietnamese language word linh chi is a loanword from Chinese. It is often used with nấm, the Vietnamese word for “mushroom”, thus nấm linh chi is the equivalent of “lingzhi mushroom”. A 2015 Cochrane database review found insufficient evidence to justify the use of G.