Poria

Wolfiporia extensa

Pachyman and triterpenes · a sclerotium set on pine roots

Poria is not a mushroom that raises a cap: it is a sclerotium, a hard mass that forms on the roots where a pine has been cut. The outside is black and finely wrinkled, the inside white and firm, and nothing shows above ground until it is dug. Herbal markets sell it as baekbokryeong in lumps, slices or powder, stirred into rice cakes, porridge and tea. Almost all of what circulates now is cultivated, from pine billets buried in the ground and inoculated with spawn. The Donguibogam lists 茯苓 in its Wood section, giving it a neutral nature, a sweet taste and no toxicity. It grows in the mountains and is found everywhere, the entry says, and it carries the old explanation that pine resin sinks into the earth and after a thousand years becomes poria, setting apart as 茯神 the piece that clasps the root and stays light and open in texture. It is dug in the second and eighth lunar months and dried in the shade, and the ones judged good are as large as a three or four doe vessel, black and finely wrinkled outside, firm and white within. Two kinds, a white and a red, are recorded as well.

Year-Round Calendar

Sowing

Harvest

Where It Grows

Main producer Major producer Wild population Latitudes at 22–28℃ Zoom and pan to explore · temperatures are rough zonal averages

Main producer Yuexi in Anhui, Luotian in Hubei, and Yunnan are the noted production areas, and they supply most of the traded volume. Harvest July, August, September
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Major producer Pine logs are buried in the ground and inoculated with spawn. It is also dug from around the stumps left after logging. Harvest September, October
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Major producer It occurs in pine forests, and some of the crop is raised by log cultivation.
Wild population The same fungus is distributed in the pine forests of the southeast. It is neither dug nor cultivated there.

It is distributed across the pine forests of East Asia and North America, but only East Asia digs and cultivates it, so the map of where it grows wild and the map of where it is produced do not match. In the past it was dug out of the ground where pines had been felled; today the main method is to bury pine logs in the soil and inoculate them with spawn. The scientific name is Wolfiporia extensa, and it is also written under its former name, W. cocos.

Optimum: 22~28℃
Range: 10~35℃
Hardiness: Hardy
Day length: Not applicable

This is a fungus that attaches itself to pine roots and stumps and builds a solid mass underground. The mycelium spreads best in the high 20s ℃, and the mass passes the winter in the soil. It needs a well-drained masato slope — coarse, decomposed granite soil — and it rots if water collects there during the rainy season. Since the fungus has no flowers, the very idea of a day-length response does not apply.

Harvested 1–2 years after planting. One or two years after the logs are buried and the spawn is added, the masses are dug up in autumn, once the ground has dried. The month of burying and the month of digging do not fall in the same year.

In Korea Nationwide

It grows throughout the country wherever there are pines on the hills. Well-drained masato slopes are its place, and it is dug from around felled stumps or from logs that have been buried.

How to grow

Light: It grows underground, so sunlight is beside the point. It sets on the roots and stumps where pine has been cut
Soil and depth: Nothing is planted in soil. Its ground is free-draining grit in pine forest; cultivation buries pine billets and inoculates them with spawn
Spacing: Leave 30cm or more between buried billets. Packed together, contaminant moulds spread and the masses set unevenly
Watering: No watering. Avoid from the outset any spot where water sits through the rainy season
Feeding: No feeding. The wood of the buried pine is the whole of the nutrition
Harvest: One to two years after burying, in the dry ground of autumn, dig around the billet and lift the mass. The Donguibogam records digging in the second and eighth lunar months

What makes the difference. When buying, choose flesh close to ivory white and firm enough to resist a fingernail. Avoid anything chalky, unnaturally white, or sour-smelling. Keep it sealed somewhere cool and dry, and refrigerate the powder

Why this one is harder. This is not a back-garden undertaking. It needs pine billets, ground to bury them in and one or two years of waiting, and a single run of contaminant mould can take the lot. Learning how to choose and store bought material is the practical route

Common problems

Contaminant moulds such as green mould You will see Green or black mould spreading across the cut face of a buried billet What to do Dig out contaminated billets and discard them separately. Sterilise tools before inoculating and do not bury billets straight after rain
Soil pests such as chafer grubs and termites You will see Grazed marks on the mass, or a billet crumbling from the inside What to do Do not bury unfinished compost alongside. Where damage is heavy, move to a fresh site the following year
Waterlogging You will see After the rainy season the billet is black, sodden and sour-smelling What to do Raise the bed and cut a drainage channel. Dig out rotted billets and do not bury again in that spot

This page describes how a crop is grown and used. It does not claim health effects for any food, nor is it intended to prevent or treat disease. Component and study notes are references only and do not mean the same result occurs in people. Consult a medical professional about health concerns.

Health Benefits

The old record — bokryeong (茯苓). The Donguibogam lists it in the Wood section as 茯苓, giving a neutral nature, a sweet taste and no toxicity. It grows in the mountains and is found everywhere, the entry says. It carries the old explanation that pine resin sinks into the earth and becomes poria after a thousand years, and it sets apart as 茯神 the piece that clasps the root and stays light and open. It is dug in the second and eighth lunar months and dried in the shade in every case. The ones judged good are as large as a three or four doe vessel, with a black, finely wrinkled rind and a firm white interior, shaped like a bird, a beast, a tortoise or a soft-shelled turtle. Two kinds, white and red, are recorded as well. What an old medical text wrote differs from how it is judged today.

Polysaccharides and triterpenes of poria. Analyses repeatedly report the isolation from poria of pachyman, a beta-glucan polysaccharide, and of pachymic acid-type triterpenes. These are compositional analyses and have no bearing on disease.

The resin story and present-day classification. The original account of pine resin turning into poria after a thousand years differs from present-day biology, which classifies poria as a sclerotium formed from the compacted hyphae of a fungus growing on pine roots and stumps. Only the observation that it comes up with pine is shared between the old record and today.

Nutrition

Pachyman (a polysaccharide isolated from poria) — a beta-glucan polysaccharide making up the structure of the sclerotium
Triterpene compounds (isolated from poria) — the compounds known as pachymic acids
Dietary fibre (the dried mass) — a consequence of polysaccharides that dissolve poorly in water

A mushroom with no cap Poria raises neither cap nor stem; it is a sclerotium, a mass of hyphae compacted underground. Unlike shiitake or wood ear, then, it offers no outward form by which to identify the species. It is a material handled on the assumption that it is bought.

The polysaccharide of poria Analyses report the isolation from poria of a beta-glucan polysaccharide named pachyman. It dissolves poorly in water, which is why the powder settles when stirred into liquid. This entry stays with the compositional record.

Triterpene compounds Analyses repeatedly report the isolation of pachymic acid-type triterpenes from poria. This is a record of composition and nothing beyond it.

Using it as a powder Baekbokryeong powder has almost no flavour of its own and takes up moisture readily, so stirred into rice flour or porridge it changes the texture and little else. Too much at once turns the dish pasty, so build up slowly. The powder goes damp easily, so seal it and keep it refrigerated.

Pairings

○ Rice cake with baekbokryeong powder — Mix a little of the powder into rice flour and steam. Its mildness leaves other ingredients alone and simply gives more body. Start at about one part in ten of the rice flour.

○ Stirred into porridge — Stir a little powder through at the end of cooking. It does not disperse well, so slake it in cold water first. Long boiling turns it pasty, so add it just before the heat goes off.

○ Simmered with jujube and ginger — Simmer sliced poria with jujube and ginger for about twenty minutes and strain. Poria itself is faint, so the sweetness of the jujube leads. The slices will take a second simmering. Jujube

△ Digging it in the hills — Poria sits underground and leaves no sign above it, and digging around a pine stump is itself a harvest requiring the permission of the landowner or of the body managing state forest. Do not dig without it. An underground mass cannot reliably be told from other sclerotia or root nodules by appearance, so do not eat something you have dug and identified yourself.

△ Anything unnaturally white — The flesh of poria is white but closer to ivory. Do not buy pieces that look bleached, smell sour, or carry a sharp chemical smell. Avoid any that a fingernail sinks straight into, or that crumbles like chalk.

△ Damp or mouldy stock — Discard lumps or slices showing green or black mould, or that feel damp to the touch. Do not cut out the mouldy part and use the rest. After buying, keep it sealed somewhere cool and dry, and refrigerate the powder.

Varieties

Baekbokryeong (grade) — The white interior, cut out. This is what is ground for rice cakes and porridge
Jeokbokryeong (grade) — The part with a reddish cast inside. The original also records a white kind and a red kind
Boksin (part) — The mass that hardened clasping a pine root. The original gives this part a name of its own
Bokryeongpi (part) — The black outer rind, peeled away. Handled separately from the flesh

Source: Donguibogam, Wood Section 茯苓 · Rural Development Administration (Nongsaro)