Reishi

Ganoderma lucidum

Ganodermataceae

The lacquered 'mushroom of immortality' — a bitter decoction for recovery, sleep, and immune tone.

Gourmet/medicinal mushroom. Cultivation is legal.

Parts used: Fruiting body · Sometimes mycelium (weaker triterpene profile)
Traditional notes: Recovery after illness · Restless fatigue · Immune modulation · Altitude and travel strain (folk)
Grow · USDA 6b: Temperate to subtropical saprophyte Inoculate fresh hardwood logs with plug spawn in spring, or buy a fruiting block. In work: Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep
Harvest: When the white growing edge finishes and the cap varnishes. Dry immediately.

Fresh oak or maple logs, plug spawn, wax, shade. Then wait a year.
A fruiting block is the honest first crop while logs colonize.
Slice and dry as soon as the white edge finishes or it molds in the jar.

Safety

Organ transplant Bleeding disorders at high dose Pregnancy without advice

Lore

Língzhī, the mushroom of immortality in Chinese painting — a varnished conk you simmer for hours and never enjoy as a steak. Daoist texts treat it as a spirit plant. The grocery slice is a farmed log crop, which is how immortality learned to scale.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.