Lingzhi mushroom - Reishi

The lingzhi mushroom or reishi mushroom (traditional Chinese: 靈芝; pinyin: língzhī; Japanese: reishi; Vietnamese: linh chi; literally: "supernatural mushroom") encompasses several fungal species of the genus Ganoderma, and most commonly refers to the closely related species, Ganoderma lucidum and Ganoderma tsugae. G. lucidum enjoys special veneration in East Asia, where it has been used as a medicinal mushroom in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2,000 years,making it one of the oldest mushrooms known to have been used medicinally. Because of lingzhi's presumed health value and apparent absence of side-effects, it has attained a reputation in the East as the ultimate herbal substance.Lingzhi is listed in the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia and Therapeutic Compendium. Taxonomy and naming Names for the lingzhi fungus have a two thousand year history. The Chinese term lingzhi 靈芝 was first recorded in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220 CE). Petter Adolf Karsten named the genus Ganoderma in 1881. Botanical names The lingzhi's botanical names have Greek and Latin roots. The generic name Ganoderma derives from the Greek ganos γανος "brightness; sheen", hence "shining" and derma δερμα "skin". The specific epithet Lucidum is Latin for "shining" and tsugae for "hemlock" (from Japanese tsuga 栂). There are multiple species of Lingzhi, scientifically known to be within the Ganoderma lucidum species complex and mycologists are still researching the differences among species within this complex. Chinese names Chinese language lingzhi compounds ling 靈 "spirit, spiritual; soul; miraculous; sacred; divine; mysterious; efficacious; effective" (cf. Lingyan Temple) and zhi 芝 "(traditional) plant of longevity; fungus; seed; branch; mushroom; excrescence". Fabrizio Pregadio explains, "The term zhi, which has no equivalent in Western languages, refers to a variety of supermundane substances often described as plants, fungi, or "excresences"."Zhi occurs in other Chinese plant names such as zhima 芝麻 "sesame" or "seed", and was anciently used a phonetic loan character for zhi 芷 "Angelica iris". Chinese differentiates Ganoderma species between chizhi 赤芝 "red mushroom" G. lucidum and zizhi 紫芝 "purple mushroom" G. japonicum. Lingzhi 靈芝has several synonyms. Ruicao 瑞草 "auspicious plant" (with rui 瑞 "auspicious; felicitous omen" and the suffix cao "plant; herb") is the oldest; the (ca. 3rd century BCE) Erya dictionary defines qiu 苬 (interpreted as a miscopy of jun 菌 "mushroom") as zhi 芝 "mushroom" and the commentary of Guo Pu (276–324) says, "The [zhi] flowers three times in one year. It is a [ruicao] felicitous plant." Other Chinese names for Ganoderma include ruizhi 瑞芝 "auspicious mushroom", shenzhi 神芝 "divine mushroom" (with shen "spirit; god' supernatural; divine"), mulingzhi 木靈芝 (with "tree; wood"), xiancao 仙草 "immortality plant" (with xian "(Daoism) transcendent; immortal; wizard"), and lingzhicao 靈芝草 or zhicao 芝草 "mushroom plant". Since both Chinese Ling and Zhi have multiple meanings, Lingzhi has diverse English translations. Renditions include "[zhi] possessed of soul power", "Herb of Spiritual Potency" or "Mushroom of Immortality", "Numinous Mushroom", "divine mushroom", "divine fungus","Magic Fungus", and "Marvelous Fungus Korean names Korean language Yeong Ji or Yung Gee (영지,靈芝) is a word from hanja of lingzhi. It is also called Seon-cho (선초,仙草), Gil-sang-beo-seot (길상버섯,吉祥茸), Yeong ji cho (영지초,靈芝草) or Jeok ji (적지,赤芝). It can be classified by its color such as Ja-ji (자지,紫芝) for purple one, Heuk-ji (흑지,黑芝) for black, Cheong-ji (청지,靑芝) for blue or green, Baek-ji (백지,白芝) for white, Hwang-ji (황지,黃芝) for yellow. Vietnamese names Vietnamese language linh chi is a word from tiếng Việt. It is often used with (nấm Linh Chi) which is the equivalent of Ganoderma Lucidum or Reishi Mushroom. English names English Lingzhi or ling chih (sometimes misspelled "ling chi" from French EFEO Chinese transcription) is a Chinese loanword. The Oxford English Dictionary gives Chinese "líng divine + zhī fungus" as the origin of ling chih or Lingzhi, and defines, "The fungus Ganoderma lucidum, believed in China to confer longevity and used as a symbol of this on Chinese ceramic ware." The OED notes the earliest recorded usage of the Wade-Giles romanization ling chih in 1904, and of the Pinyin lingzhi in 1980. In addition to the transliterated loanword, English names include "Glossy Ganoderma" and "shiny polyporus".