What it is Ganoderma lucidum, called reishi in Japan and lingzhi in China. It fruits …
- Scott Brenton
- September 13, 2026
- 3 min read
From the lab & the field
Cultivation know-how, mushroom science, recipes, and dispatches
from our Longmont lab — written by the people who grow them.
What it is Ganoderma lucidum, called reishi in Japan and lingzhi in China. It fruits …
What it is Hypsizygus tessulatus — beech mushroom, shimeji, buna-shimeji in its brown form and bunapi in the white. Grown in tight bouquets of fifty
What it is Black pearl is a Pleurotus hybrid — usually credited as a cross of ostreatus and eryngii — grown for the best traits
What it is Grifola frondosa — maitake in Japanese, hen of the woods in English, named for the resemblance to a hen’s ruffled back. In
What it is Pholiota adiposa, sometimes sold as cinnamon cap or chestnut mushroom. Clusters of small, glossy bronze caps — sometimes with fine scales —
What it is Lentinula edodes, grown on supplemented hardwood. Tan-brown caps, sometimes cracked into a pale “donko” pattern when they fruit slowly in cool air
What it is Hericium erinaceus — a cream-white cushion covered in soft downward spines instead of a cap and gills. In the wild it grows
What it is Pleurotus eryngii — king oyster, king trumpet, eryngii. It looks nothing like the rest of its family: a single thick white stem
What it is Pleurotus citrinopileatus, the yellow oyster. It fruits in bouquets of thin, funnel-shaped caps on long slender stems, in a yellow so saturated
What it is Pleurotus djamor, a tropical oyster that fruits in tight ruffled rosettes the colour of a flamingo. It grows absurdly fast — from
What it is Blue oyster is the cool-weather strain of Pleurotus ostreatus, grown in fanned clusters on hardwood sawdust. The name is the young cap:
What “gourmet mushroom” actually means It is not a quality claim. It is shorthand for every cultivated edible mushroom that is not a button mushroom