Mature fruit body: 

The whole organism focuses all of its energy into developing the fruit body, which will then produce spores. Think of the fruiting body like an apple on a tree. The fruit body is the primary traditional source of medicine. Most of the medical research to date has been done on the fruiting body. 

This is also the part used for food. The most common being the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) you find in almost every food store. There are many other delicious varieties of edible mushrooms, both cultivated and growing wild. We will cover a few of the choice edible mushrooms that are also highly medicinal and relatively easy to grow.

Some more fun Agaricus bisporus facts:

  • They account for 90 percent of the mushroom production in the United States, making it an almost one-billion-dollar industry.
  • As the mushrooms mature, they lose some of their water content, making portobellos the most flavorful of the bunch (followed by the creminis, then the buttons).
  • The average American consumes more than 2 pounds of mushrooms each year.
  • Mushrooms are more closely related in DNA to humans than to plants.
  • A single portobello mushroom can contain more potassium than a banana.
 Button mushrooms are considered humble culinary mushrooms, but they're powerful and intriguing too. 

Spore generation is the sexual reproduction phase of the mushroom life cycle nutrients. Some people use the spores for medicine. Spores are very tough but modern technology has developed ways to break them down.

Spore release: The fruit body releases spores into the environment for propagation. Spore prints are one of the ways that people identify mushrooms.

Inoculation: Spores land on a suitable growth medium (or substrate). If conditions are favorable, spores will germinate.

Substrate: the substrate is the surface or material from which an organism grows or obtains its nourishment. We will explore a few of the common substrates used to grow mushrooms.

Spore germination: Fine fungal filaments known as hyphae grow from the spores. Compatible hyphae mate to create fertile mycelium.

Mycelial expansion: Developing mycelium breaks down organic matter and absorbs nutrients from its surroundings. During this stage of growth, mycelium expands at an exponential rate. Use of the mycelium is an exciting development in the fungi world. Mycelium over fruiting body (Fomitopsis officinalis) are being explored because of the limited availability of the fruiting body in the wild. 

Mycelium grown on food natto, kefir. Miso and tempeh (bonus video)

Once the mycelium has fully built its network, it transitions to its next stage: building a mushroom. This is where humans can intervene. Rather than letting a mushroom pop up out of the substrate, the mycelium can be coaxed to build predictable structures by controlling temperature, CO2, humidity and airflow to influence the growth of tissue. This is a rapid process: the accumulation of fibers becomes a visible speck after a few hours, a visible sheet after a day or two, and an 18-by-2-by-12-inch sheet weighing a couple of pounds within the course of a week.



Living coffins are now being created from mycelium, with the hope to replace graveyards and cemeteries with beautiful forests created from dead humans. Companies, such as Loop, who are building mycelium coffins, highlight the fact that groundwater re-activates the mycelium, enabling the coffins to become one with nature again within 45 days.

Other exciting developments. Mycelium can also be used for making packaging material instead of styrofoam building, composting, restoration, leather, furniture and building blocks. (See resources below)

Hyphal knot: Mycelium condenses into hyphal knots, which then develop into “primordia” or baby mushrooms.

Primordia formation: The mushroom organism produces an amazing array of enzymes and optimizes the constituents of both the mycelium and the developing fruit body. The primordia develops into the mature fruiting body.

The cycle repeats itself.

Resources:

Mycelium: 

Medicinal potential of mycelium and fruiting bodies of an arboreal mushroom Fomitopsis officinalis in therapy of lifestyle diseases 


 

What is mycellium?


How to grow giant mycellium parts. DIY making a chair.

 

Leather from mycellium

Spores: 

Pharmacological Properties of Biocompounds from Spores of the Lingzhi or Reishi Medicinal Mushroom Ganoderma lucidum (Agaricomycetes): A Review https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27910768/