Lion’s Mane | Hericium erinaceus

Description

Lion’s Mane Mushroom is one of the most popular mushrooms on the planet today – and for good reason. The many benefits of this mushroom on the human brain have led to a massive adoption of supplements, extracts and other medicinal preparations of this wonderfully complex organism.

[ from mushroomexpert.com ]

Ecology: Saprobic and parasitic; usually growing alone or in pairs; fruiting from the wounds of living hardwoods (especially oaks); late summer and fall, or over winter and spring in warmer climates; widely distributed in North America. The illustrated and described collections are from Illinois.

Fruiting Body: 8–16 cm across; consisting of one, unbranched clump of 1-5 cm long, soft spines hanging from a tough, hidden base that is attached to the tree; spines white, or in age discoloring brownish to yellowish.

Flesh: White; not changing when sliced.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 5–6 x 5.5–6 µm; globose to subglobose or subellipsoid; smooth or minutely roughened; hyaline and uniguttulate in KOH; amyloid. Gloeoplerous hyphae present, sometimes extending into hymenium to become cystidia (up to 50 x 6 µm, cylindric with knobbed apices, smooth, thin-walled).