Bears Head Tooth Mushroom Medicinal

Bear s head is part of a group of closely related tooth fungi that is they release their spores from tooth like or hair like structures rather than from gills that have rather confusing names i.

Bears head tooth mushroom medicinal.

While trees are alive they produce natural fungicides that prevent saprophytes from growing on them. The bear s head tooth fungus. June 11 2020 june 11 2020 by the mushroom guy. Bear s head tooth mushroom hericium americanum.

Bear s head mushrooms are favored for their nutty taste and tender texture. The well known and most researched lion s mane hericium erinaceus grows in my area though infrequent. Lion s mane also known as bear s head monkey s head comb tooth hedgehog or simply hericium its scientific name is a toothy mushroom that looks like something you d expect to find while snorkeling at a coral reef. Stem thick knob like tough.

For starters bear s tooth mushrooms hericium abietis grow on fir trees. Teeth up to 2 5 cm long usually 0 5 to 1 0 cm long fleshy but brittle. It has long spines and a branched fruiting body. Bears head tooth hericium americanum this one is very closely related to true lion s mane and in fact many wild mushroom hunters consider them the same species.

The photos you see are all of the h. To begin with they are sometimes all referred to as lion s mane a name that more properly refers to h. Abietis species sometimes called bear s head to differentiate. Wild mushroom growing on a log.

Applications bear s head mushrooms must be cooked before consumption and are best suited for applications such as baking sautéing and frying. Bear s head tooth fungus is a species of fungus with a shaggy appearance native to eastern parts of the united states. The bear s head tooth mushroom hericium americanum see photo above and its sibling species are some of my favorite mushrooms for several reasons not the least of which is their wonderful and rich flavor when broken into nuggets baked until they re about one half their size before baking then dipped into melted garlic butter absolutely delightful. The major difference is that instead of having single snowball like formations bears head tooth has a number short branches that are closely bunched together.

Therefore in order to grow mushrooms the trees must be dead. Hericiaceae is white when fresh and yellows with age. Bear s head tooth fungi are also known as bear s head mushrooms and pom pom blanc and were first scientifically described by james ginns of canada in 1984. This spiky looking snowball is actually a delicious lion s mane mushroom.

Some people prefer this mushroom lightly sauteed which does leave it considerably. Mushrooms like hericium get me excited when i consider their potential medicinal impact. All edible wild fungi must be cooked. Cap 10 to 75 cm across main branches up to 3 cm thick branching repeatedly bearing clusters of spines on the ends of branches and from lateral nodules white to creamy yellowish buff orange buff.

The scientific name of the bear s head tooth fungus is hericium americanum and it is from the family hericiaceae a family of fungi.