Browse Mushrooms

Medicinal Mushrooms

Medicinal mushrooms are valued for what they may do rather than how they taste. This tier is about function, and about being honest where the evidence is thin.

Medicinal Medicinal

Used medicinally, not as a staple food. Not a substitute for medical advice, consult a clinician before use.

Large chalky white agarikon conk with a cracked surface growing high on an old conifer trunk

Agarikon

Laricifomes officinalis

Agarikon is a long-lived chalky conk of old conifers, especially larch, with a pale pore surface and crumbly…

Medicinal
Large black cracked chaga conk on the trunk of a living white birch

Chaga

Inonotus obliquus

Chaga is the black cracked mass on a living birch, and it is not a mushroom in the way most people mean. It…

Medicinal
Dried caterpillar fungus specimens, each a pale tan caterpillar body with a dark club growing from the head

Cordyceps

Ophiocordyceps sinensis

Cordyceps is a fungus that kills a caterpillar and grows a club out of its head, and it is one of the most…

Medicinal
Varnished reishi bracket with concentric red brown bands and a pale growing margin on hardwood

Reishi

Ganoderma sichuanense

Reishi is a varnished hardwood bracket that is famous as a medicine and useless as food. The practical facts…

Medicinal
A cluster of turkey tail bracket fungi on a mossy log, thin overlapping fans banded in brown, rust, tan and gray

Turkey Tail

Trametes versicolor

Turkey tail is the most photographed mushroom in the woods and one of the most often misnamed, because the…

Medicinal
A white, shaggy Lion's Mane mushroom with cascading spines on a tree trunk

Lion's Mane

Hericium erinaceus

Lion's Mane is the white tooth fungus that looks like a shaggy pom-pom on hardwood. It is easy to recognize…

Medicinal
Antler-form reishi branching from a colonized hardwood block

Antler Reishi

Ganoderma lucidum

Antler reishi is a growth form produced when a reishi culture keeps elongating instead of expanding a shelf…

Medicinal
Dark hoof-shaped Mesima bracket with a brown growing margin on a humid tropical hardwood trunk

Mesima

Tropicoporus linteus

Mesima is the trade and traditional-use name most often connected with *Phellinus linteus*, now accepted as…

Medicinal
Whole poria sclerotium cut open to show its thin brown rind and dense white interior

Poria

Wolfiporia cocos

Poria is unusual because the traded material is a buried storage structure called a sclerotium, not the…

Medicinal

Function over flavor

These species are taken as teas, powders, or extracts rather than eaten as a meal. Lion's mane and reishi are common examples.

What the evidence supports

Interest is real and research is growing, but many popular claims are still early or unproven. We describe what studies actually show, not what marketing promises.

Warning

Nothing here is medical advice. Do not use any mushroom to treat a condition, or in place of prescribed care, without speaking to a clinician.

Quality and source matter

Effects depend heavily on the species, the part used, and the preparation. A vague blend is not the same as a well-sourced, clearly labeled extract.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are medicinal mushrooms?
Species valued for functional properties rather than as food, usually taken as teas, powders, or extracts. Lion's mane and reishi are common examples.
Are the health claims about medicinal mushrooms proven?
Interest and research are growing, but many popular claims are still early or unproven. We report what studies show, and nothing here is a substitute for medical advice.

Browse related groups

All By Edibility Choice Edible Edible Edible with Caution Inedible Poisonous