My app is saying this is golden reishi. Can anyone confirm?

That's what mine shows too.

CIA mushroom, I can neither confirm or deny!

Looks like a conk. Is golden reishi a type of conk?

Internet says it's a polypore, which I guess conks are too. So not real sure?

Wsas it growing on a dead tree?

Not reishi,,, it’s usually brighter than that.. that’s a conk

It was growing about 2' from a tree stump that was cut down after the dead tree fell down about 3 months ago.., through sawdust.

The stem was very woody... but it appeared to be coming out of the ground... maybe an underground root?

Id call it dryads saddle but I'm drunk. If in doubt take a spore print

It's a Ganoderma conk. I agree with the golden reishi id.

Ganoderma is a genus of tough, large perennial conks split into several sections, that includes a section of species known as Artist's Polypore, which are big, flat brown conks (if you scratch the white bottom surface, it leaves dark brown marks) and a section of species known as reishi, with an upper surface that usually looks varnished. Reishi proper is called Ganoderma lucidum and was originally believed to be a Eurasian species that grows on hardwoods, plus there was G. resinosum, identical but growing on conifers, and a small handful of other species, including G. curtisii, the golden reishi, a North American species. DNA studies have shown that there are more species in the "reishi" section of Ganoderma, and that the original Chinese reishi is restricted to parts of SE Asia.

Supposedly they all have the medicinal properties ascribed to them. In fact, the Chinese use other speies of ganoderma to make "traditional" remedies, too, but just like homeopathy in India, a lot of "traditional natural remedies" are a government-supported scam aimed to relieve the strain on the outpatient clinics system (and a great business opportunty to exploit the sick and monetize various organic litter).

Thanks, Tatiana, was hoping you'd chime in!!

So, in your opinion, is there any validity to any health benefits of any reishi? Or this one in particular?

Last time I used an app for mushrooms,,,, I was jumping off the roof to tackle the crabgrass the looked like 100 snakes……

I'm a bit skeptical about the BIG health benefits. I think with reishi, lion's mane, shiitake, etc. the advertized benefits are very exaggerated, otherwise the specific substances responsible for the magical healing effect would have long been isolated, there'd be a ton of pharmaceuticals based on these substances and fierce competition to modify and improve these chemicals, to make them more reliable, efficient, safe, bioaccessible, etc. So far it hasn't really happened with any of the fungi that are commonly touted as potent remedies, although there are multiple labs globally, in China in particular, devoted to studying the composition and effects of various naturally occurring substances in fungi. There exist plenty of plants and fungi that DO have a lot of medicinal power: foxglove and its digitalis alkaloids for the heart, certain molds such as Penicillum and their antibiotics, certain fungal species of the Cordyceps family and their immunosuppressor substances, ciclosporin in particular, very effective against RA and host-graft conflicts, or vincristine, a powerful cancer drug derived from pretty pink flowers.... even bear gall has potent medicinal properties as a gallstone and cholesterol plaque preventative since it's full of ursodesoxycholic acid. Reishi may have some medicinal properties, but they're insignificant in comparison. It is probably nontoxic as such, but being an unrefined natural product, it can cause unpredictable adverse effects, from plain allergies to more serious issues, such as leukopenia and other blood problems. It PROBABLY has SOME anti-inflammatory properties, because many wood-inhabiting fungi seem to have such effect, which MAY be connected with some of the biochemical tricks they employ to take lignin, the main structural polymer of wood, apart, and my ex claimed that reishi brewed as tea had an energizing effect similar to coffee, but I cannot confirm that myself, I tried drinking it and it tasted like brewed mulch from a garden bed, and had no effect whatsoever.

I would NOT trust any claims that it has the power to stop or affect the course of any form of cancer if taken in its natural form. I happen to have met a lady who at the time was the head of the Mycology lab in a huge, world-famous federal research facility nearby that deals with microbiological research. She is a well-known ambassador of chaga and its benetits, including its anti-cancer and antiviral properties (she claims it can be used to treat HIV and hep C) and other medicinal mushrooms. I listened to her for several hours, and she's a delusional freak, their experimental base is a joke, there is no logic in their research (for instance, they pour brewed chaga on a culture of tumor cells in a Petri dish and the cells stop dividing, and they interpret this as anti-cancer properties, without any clinical trials or anything. It's similar to the old Soviet joke when a guy catches a cat and pours a glass of gasoline in its mouth, the cat walks away and collapses after a few steps, and the guy decides that the cat has run out of gas. They publish quite a few research papers but most of this research is VERY poorly designed and quotes older and equally crummy research done by the same people. She bragged about talking HIV patients out of taking antiretroviral therapy in favor of drinking chaga water. I later learned that coincidentally, her immediate boss has a thriving side business, a factory producing a variety of food supplements including things universally considered to be ineffective by the scientific community, and she is his business partner, and they sell A LOT of chaga and other "medicinal" fungi in capsules and as extracts (for exorbitant prices), and that explained a lot of things.

Thanks again, Tatiana, this time for destroying any illusions I had about the miraculous healing powers of shrooms, LOL. You always hear so much about the healing properties of mushrooms as well as medicinal plants, but what you said makes a whole lot more sense... if they were truly that effective the pharmaceutical companies would be using them themselves, as in the case of digitalis, as you pointed out.

So I guess I didn't find the cure to cancer and other heinous maladies growing on a stump at the road edge of my place of employment while indulging in the cancer-causing deliciousness of another botanical, dang it! LOL

Tatiana your mastery of English and knowledge impresses me.

I like lions mane. No clue if the health benefits are real. I like to sauté garlic and butter and spread it on lions mane slices then bake it for a bit. Stuff is delicious.

We call them conks here more like wood than a mushroom.

I believe there is a market for them at the right time of year.

Tatiana, once again we are all astonished at your use English and knowledge of mushrooms and common sense. Would be a different world if there were more people that thought before they spoke. In my opinion there is no real health food, but thinking there is makes a positive attitude that means more then the supposedly health food itself. you gotta have a positive attitude.....jk