Chinese Wild Lingzhi Reishi Mushroom

Ganoderma is a genus of polypore mushrooms which grow on wood, and include about 80 species, many from tropical regions. Because of their extensive use in traditional Asian medicines, and their potential in bioremediation, they are a very important genus economically. Ganoderma can be differentiated from other polypores because they have a double walled basidiospore. They are popularly referred to as shelf mushrooms or bracket fungi.

Ganoderma are characterized by basidiocarps that are large, perennial, woody brackets also called "conks". They are lignicolous and leathery either with or without a stem. The fruit bodies typically grow in a fan-like or hoof-like form on the trunks of living or dead trees. They have double-walled, truncate spores with yellow to brown ornamented inner layers.

Ganoderma are wood-decaying fungi with a cosmopolitan distribution. They can grow on both coniferous and hardwood species. They are white-rot fungi with enzymes that allow them to break down wood components such as lignin and cellulose. There has been significant research interest in trying to harness the power of these wood-degrading enzymes for industrial applications such as biopulping or bioremediation.