Lion's Mane Mushroom

LION’S MANE MUSHROOM(Hericium erinaceus)
Family:  Hericiaceae
                      MAKING FRUITFUL CONNECTIONS

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​In a North American old-growth forest, on temperate and relatively dry Fall days, around noon as temperatures are rising and humidity levels dropping, the Lion’s Mane mushroom sporulates, producing small white spores that are released in the billions into the soft breezes.  Wind-born, they will seek purchase on the dead wood of trees:  a fallen branch or felled tree, a stump, even a tree still standing but wounded or dying.  (Should an upright wounded or dying tree become a Lion’s Mane host, the mushroom tends not to grow near ground level but higher up the trunk.  If foraging, look skyward among the standing trees).

Undiminished by hand of man and unmarred by calamitous natural disaster, an old-growth forest’s generations build one upon the other, over time tightening the habitat into a high-functioning ecosystem.  Underground, an ever-expanding network of mushroom root systems, the reason for the forest’s achievement, stabilizes and enriches the soil, drawing together the forest’s inhabitants in a communication of resources (nutritional and informational) for their growth, protection, and survival

Aboveground, cycling visibly into their maturity and then into their dying and death, the deadwood trees, their broken limbs and fallen bodies scattered upon the forest floor, appear to have reached their end.  Looking like no more than coarse, broken, woody debris, in their silent repose they’re active still in turning the forest’s wheel of life by helping prevent erosion, retain water, provide soil with large quantities of organic and mineral input, and by becoming habitat for plants, animals, and fungi.  In company with certain of these deadwood trees is the Lion’s Mane mushroom whose need for them helps breathe back into them an ableness to keep giving to the forest’s broadening success. ​

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On territory as virgin and wealthy as an old-growth forest, Lion’s Mane is in the enviable position of fully executing its purpose in life as well as maintaining its lineage. Although, viewed from the standpoint of forestry management, what clutters the forest floor requires clearing (a means to prevent pest infestation, a need for fuel, or for purpose of beautification), as long as deadwood remains undisturbed, the Lion’s Mane mushroom is assured host specificity and the forest’s survival is made certain.  Following trails of deciduous, hardwood, broadleaf trees such as oak, maple, walnut, sycamore, beech, and birch, Lion’s Mane finds the dead and beleaguered among them, securing its future.

Once on its host and under suitable conditions, a Lion’s Mane spore germinates into a mycelium, the root system of the mushroom, the long, slender, filamentous strands of which snake down into the host.  There, the strands (hyphae) release enzymes that break down the deadwood into soluble nutrients, amplifying the wood as a nutritive resource and enlarging its capacity to nourish not only the mycelium but surrounding plants and trees, for growing past its host and entering into the forest’s subterranean world, the mycelial strands stretch and network with the roots of other organisms where an exchange of nutrients occurs.  Lion’s Mane is a saprophytic fungus, one that lives on dead or dying organic matter and revitalizes it for the living. The spore’s chosen deadwood, seemingly at the end of life, vigorously re-enters it.
The mycelial network of Lion’s Mane, strung wide beneath the forest floor,  creates a stable architecture for the forest’s generations.  Without continuing presence of deadwood and saprophytic fungi such as Lion’s Mane, the quality of an old-growth forest’s land and vegetation will decline, and there, seed, without promise to germinate, grow, and survive, will find no place.

A fruiting body, the part of the Lion’s Mane mushroom that is visible on the surface of the deadwood, doesn’t form unless two compatible mycelia join.  Such united mycelia birth a distinctively formidable-looking mushroom, one bearing no resemblance to a Disney toadstool. Referred to also as Bearded Tooth, Old Man’s Beard, Pom-Pom Blanc, Sheep’s Head, Pig’s Head, Monkey’s Head, and Tree Hedgehog, the Lion’s Mane fruiting body is a two- to fifteen-inch-wide, irregularly-shaped bulbous protrusion. Covering it completely is a three- to ten-inch-long mass of downward-cascading white teeth. Growing up to two inches in length, the teeth suggest spines, tendrils, icicles, needles – or the mane of a lion.  Considered a member of the tooth fungus group, it is from each one of these teeth that Lion’s Mane releases its spores.
And so it goes . . .

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Foraging in Missouri for the wild, untamed Lion’s Mane is not without challenge.  The mushroom is solitary.  The chance of finding it is even less if one treks the forest only looking down at fallen logs.  Remembering to look up, the forager may be rewarded by the sight of one on the trunk of a still-standing tree, hopefully well within reach.  Worth the effort, Lion’s Mane, when harvested still white in color, is a nutritious and appetizing addition to the diet.  Although it may be eaten raw, baking, roasting, frying, or sautéing it delivers a more palatable version.  It’s rich in protein with a mild flavor pleasantly reminiscent of scallops, crab, or lobster.  Its meaty texture satisfies the substitute-seeking vegan.  Opening to other flavors, the mushroom becomes congenial companion to many different foods.  Consider pairing it with apples and lemons; onions, garlic, and ginger; cashews and pine nuts; pesto; beef and poultry; even a crisp, dry, white wine. Sauté it in butter and olive oil, flavor it with spices, and add it to a fresh garden salad of dark leafy greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, and radishes.  Top with a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds and a creamy vinaigrette.
Experiment.
Many websites describe how to locate and identify Lion’s Mane in the wild, how to clean it properly in advance of cooking, and the different ways to create it as entrée or side.

Aging creates change, not just in how we navigate a steep flight of stairs or digest a large Thanksgiving dinner, but in how we process information and conduct an independent life.  The brain, along with our muscles, joints, and reserve of digestive enzymes, is on a downward trajectory, but not necessarily with disease and debility the end result.  The changes aging brings to the brain, rather than  drastic, can be subtle, indicative only of a slight slowing in processing speed.

In the central nervous system, the success of the brain’s behavior is largely owed to a healthy number of healthy-functioning neurons (nerve cells).  Outgrowths of these neurons (dendrites and axons), in lightning speed, reach for, process, store, and send information. Connecting in response to stimuli, networks of neurons structurally and functionally reorganize the brain to accommodate the learning of new things and resilient adaptation to change.  Such flexibility, or plasticity, keeping us engaged in the world, is greater when neurons are protected from disease, damage, and the downward tug of aging.  Lighting the brain like a bloom of fireworks, the electrical snap of large numbers of healthy, active neurons widens our frontiers of challenge and dominion.  For along those slender, finely-branching outgrowths of neurons, mastery of our one life and the world around it is conducted.

Subject of research, certain mushrooms have gained popularity in pill, tea, or liquid extract form as medicinal applications.  One of these, the Lion’s Mane mushroom is best known as having an affinity for the central nervous system (particularly the aging central nervous system), including in instances of anxiety and depression, cognitive decline, neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, stroke and other traumatic brain injuries, Multiple Sclerosis, and nerve damage.  Although not necessarily does the brain have to be severely compromised to benefit from Lion’s Mane, for the mushroom helps uphold our focus, comprehension, memory, and recall during times of stress, distraction, and overwork.  And when used prophylactically, Lion’s Mane helps maintain a healthy, happy population of neurons.
Certain compounds in Lion’s Mane promote the biosynthesis and expression of Nerve Growth Factor.  In the brain, Nerve Growth Factor supports growth, differentiation, repair, regeneration, and overall protection of neurons, steps necessary in opposing central nervous system deterioration.  Easily crossing the blood/brain barrier due to their low molecular weight, the erinacine compounds from Lion’s Mane mycelium and the hericenone compounds from its fruiting body, helping to increase the brain’s level of Nerve Growth Factor, stimulate production of dendrite and axon outgrowths, those growth projections from neurons that, in the beginning, created our intricately-functioning neuronal architecture and that otherwise, throughout life, are the ability of our neurons to address their environmental demands, keeping us plugged in.
The mature central nervous system is not without its challenges, not the least of which is age-related reduction in the brain’s level of Nerve Growth Factor.  Revitalizing the brain through care of its neurons, increasing their connections  and communicative power, the application of Lion’s Mane is to help enrich and stimulate the ground upon which our higher functions grow, as well as offer support when that ground is compromised.

Seemingly as numerous as its cascading teeth, the Lion’s Mane mushroom is the source of many health-giving properties.  Ingested, the strength of its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immune-stimulating chemicals is borne out through a range of support.  Its reach in the body is thorough, for it is reported to be:
antibiotic
anticarcinogenic (anti-cancer)
antidiabetic
antifatigue
antihypertensive (anti-high blood pressure)
antihyperlipidemic (anti-high levels of fat in the blood)
ant senescent (anti-aging)
cardioprotective (protective of the heart)
hepatoprotective (protective of the liver)
nephroprotective (protective of the kidneys)
and neuroprotective (protective of the central nervous system).
Biodiversity is key to understanding Lion’s Mane as an application.  Its many nutrient and medicinal compounds address diverse instances of compromised human health, offering nourishment and remedy to help generate us anew.  And with improved health, we’re open once again to advancing through life.

Spanning the dark spaces beneath and beyond their hosts, the mycelial networks of Lion’s Mane, and mushrooms like it, are the silent, unseen underworld that create a livable environment on earth.  Along their persistent threads, dead and dying wood help roll forward the wheel of evolution. Death is linked back to life with an energy that grows more powerful as it branches and diversifies. High achievement marks the old-growth forests.  Our disturbance of such citadels of knowledge and experience is always to our detriment and comes in the form of those who would log the trees, turn up the soil, and lay down asphalt or concrete, disrupting the underground networks, breaking the chains, and laying waste, not only to the source of the world’s diversity, but to hope for the planet’s and our existence.
Go lightly through the forest on your next visit, for in each step’s imprint, there are myriad networks of mycelium, countless galaxies of star stuff, the elements that make life, hundreds of miles of glittering connection and re-connection that forge ever-enlightened existence.
All that under one shoe.

If we take from the forest the edible Lion’s Mane mushroom, we own the responsibility of measuring its use with focused care, for what the mushroom gave the forest, it now gives you.
 
Dosing Suggestions:
Used as a functional food (as the main meal or an addition to it) or as a nutraceutical (pill, tea, or liquid extract), Lion’s Mane mushroom seems to deliver its bioactive compounds in relative safety.  Lacking studies of potential side effects in humans, animal studies indicate the mushroom and its extracts are well tolerated even at high doses.  Lion’s Mane, when eaten, is probably best enjoyed and utilized combined with other highly nutritious foods.  If using Lion’s Mane in nutraceutical form, follow the package directions.
 
STL Herbs and Aromatic’s Lion’s Mane Mushroom liquid extract is now available.  Of extraordinary benefit by itself, that benefit may be complemented by the use of apoptogenic, nervine, and nootropic herbs, furthering the promising effects Lion’s Mane has in supporting varying conditions of disorder and disease.  Some examples:
For anti-aging, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American or Asian Ginseng, Eleuthero, Tulsi, Reishi, Rhodiola, Schizandra.

For anxiety, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha and Tulsi; with nervine herbs such as Blue Vervain, Hawthorn, Linden,  Oatstraw, Motherwort, Passion flower, Scullcap.

For depression, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, Tulsi, Rhodiola; with nervines such as Lemon Balm and St. John’s Wort.

For brain function, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American or Asian Ginseng, Eleuthero, Tulsi,  Rhodiola, Schizandra.

For cancer, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American or Asian Ginseng, Eleuthero, Holy Basil, Reishi, Rhodiola, Schizandra.

For diabetes, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American or Asian Ginseng, Eleuthero, Tulsi.

For fatigue, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American or Asian Ginseng, Eleuthero, Tulsi, Rhodiola, Schizandra

For immunity, combine the mushroom with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha, American or Asian Ginseng, Tulsi, Reishi, Rhodiola, Schizandra.

Adaptogens are extremely versatile and diverse in their range of support.
Nootropics are herbs that “enhance memory, slow or prevent the onset of age- or dementia-related cognitive decline, reduce oxidative or ischemic damage to the brain, and improve mood.”
Consider combining the mushroom with any or all of the following herbs: Bacopa, Ginkgo, Gotu Kola, Lavender, and Rosemary.

STL Herbs and Aromatics offers several liquid extract combinations that you may wish to pair with the mushroom:
Maria's Tonic Liquid Extract Combination (the Essiac formula)
Blood Sugar Balance
Blood Pressure Support
Liver Detox
Kidney and Bladder Support
Brain Support
Nervine Tonic
Immune Support
Inflammation Response
 
Safety Considerations:
An allergy to mushrooms is prohibitive.
Appropriately, if under medical supervision and using prescription medicine, please discuss possibility of the use of Lion’s Mane mushroom, as well as herbs you wish to use in tandem with it, with your physician(s).
 
Sources available upon request