Fu Ling

Wolfiporia extensa, synonymous with Wolfiporia cocos and the older Poria cocos, is a saprotrophic and weakly parasitic wood-decay fungus in the family Polyporaceae, growing on the roots and stumps of conifers, especially old pine trees, across China, Japan, Korea and parts of North America. The medicinal portion is not a typical above-ground mushroom but a massive, irregular, subterranean sclerotium, 5 to 30 cm or more across, that develops attached to and around the host roots. The sclerotium is roughly spherical to ellipsoid or amorphous, with a thin, wrinkled, dark brown to blackish skin and a dense, firm, white to faintly pinkish interior consisting of compacted hyphae and starchy reserve material. The fertile fruiting body, rarely seen, forms as a thin, white to cream-coloured, resupinate poroid layer on the surface of the sclerotium or adjacent wood. The dried sclerotium provides Fu Ling, one of the most widely used substances in Chinese medicine, valued for its bland flavour and ability to drain dampness without harming the upright Qi.