Mycorama

19/11/2025

Reishi: The “Tree of Life” Mushroom 🎑

Reishi is the global favourite in the world of functional mushrooms - and for good reason. Immersed in traditional wisdom and now at the forefront of scientific research, it has a lot to offer.

🌏Used for over 4,000 years in China, Japan, and Korea, Reishi has been revered in Traditional Chinese Medicine for its warming, nourishing, and detoxifying qualities. It’s believed to calm the spirit, strengthen the heart and lungs, boost vitality, and even lengthen the lifespan—earning it the title “the mushroom of immortality.”

🔬 Modern research over the past 70 years has uncovered why: Reishi** is rich in polysaccharides and triterpenoids (over 130 identified so far), among other beneficial active compounds, giving it a wide range of potential health benefits, including:

🛡️ Immune modulation
🎯 Anti-tumor activity
🌱 Anti-inflammatory effects
✨ Antioxidant support
🚫 Inhibition of viral growth
❤️ Cardiovascular & respiratory health support
😌 Relief from anxiety, insomnia & depression
⚡ Improved energy & vitality

And many, many more.

🧬Because Reishi’s cell walls are composed of chitin—a tough, fibrous material—the beneficial compounds locked inside aren’t easily accessible. To unlock them, we need to perform an extraction process, which breaks down the walls and releases the bioactive elements within.

1 - dried Reishi mushrooms, unknown
2 - my first ethanol extract experiment with Reishi, 2021
3 - the first Reishi I grew, 2021
4 - dried Reishi mushrooms, Sussex 2022

I recommend “Medicinal Mushrooms: The Clinical Guide” by Martin Powell and “Medicinal Mushrooms: The Human Clinical Trials” by Robert Rogers, which summarises the latest double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised human clinical trials.

**Note: “Reishi” covers all species within the Ganoderma genus. In modern research, it refers to Ganoderma lucidum, the species widely cultivated and studied in the West.

29/10/2025

A fruitful wander in the mountains above Perithori, Achaias.

Our *guesses*
1 + 4 + 8 + 9 Slippery Jack (Suillus luteus)
2 + 3 Almond Agaric (Agaricus subrufescens)
5 + 6 Unknown
7 Parasol (Macrolepiota process)

14/01/2025

Spreading the spores of DIY mushroom cultivation and land regeneration knowledge with the brilliant Nikolas Gryspokalis (TheFreeFieield) and Xaritini Paidi 🍄💫 October ‘24

08/12/2024

A captivating walk in the forest with 🌿🍄‍🟫🍄🦎

24/10/2024

So honoured to have supported this project training women's networks in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in supporting their food self-sufficiency with mushroom growing. You can find our illustrated booklet along with other practical guides to boost resilience in displaced settlements on Re-Alliance's website 🍄

Thank you also Nikolaos Gryspolakis for your valuable input 🙏

In collaboration with Mycorama (Greece) and Unidos Projects (Uganda), Re-Alliance has been supporting Minak in a transformative mushroom growing project aimed at cultivating sustainable livelihoods in the Nakivale refugee settlement.

Head over to the blog to learn more about the potential of mushroom growing to boost resilience in displacement, and download the illustrated guide that we have published to give mushroom growing a try in your community!

02/09/2024

A 10-page rundown of my article for about how mushrooms can inspire us to create more radical, nature-inspired human systems. It was a pleasure to write about how we can learn the wisdom of fungi in our thinking, our interactions and our work❤️‍🔥

10/08/2024

Very happy to share that my article 'Learning from the Wisdom of Fungi' is featured in the new issue of Permaculture Magazine. Read about how we can learn from fungal behaviours and interactions and think more like mushrooms in order to create more radical, nature-inspired human systems. Including examples from our work and that of our inspiring community's Re-Green Liveloula FreeField - Ελευθεροχώραφο mushrooms

"Through [their] interactions mushrooms create resilience not only for their own colonies but for the whole ecosystem they participate in. Collectively we can take inspiration from this creative potential, acknowledge that we too are part of a larger ecosystem and that adopting these fungi-inspired principles in our thoughts and actions will support our life giving planet to be resilient as well."