🦪 Beginner
Pearl Oyster Pleurotus ostreatus
Gourmet Fruiting
55–65°F (13–18°C)
One of the most beginner-friendly species. Extremely fast colonization and very forgiving of minor contamination. Excellent for first-time growers.
🌸 Beginner
Pink Oyster Pleurotus djamor
Gourmet Fruiting
65–85°F (18–29°C)
Tropical species that thrives in warm conditions. Stunning pink/salmon color fades when cooked. Very fast colonizer.
💙 Beginner
Blue Oyster Pleurotus ostreatus var. columbinus
Gourmet Cold-weather variety of oyster mushroom. Produces beautiful blue-grey clusters. Prefers cooler temperatures than pearl oyster.
👑 Intermediate
King Oyster Pleurotus eryngii
Gourmet Fruiting
55–60°F (13–16°C)
Thick, meaty stems make it a prized culinary mushroom. Prefers cooler fruiting temperatures. Higher CO2 tolerance produces longer, thicker stems.
🍄 Intermediate
Gourmet Fruiting
55–65°F (13–18°C)
One of the world's most cultivated mushrooms. Requires cold shocking to initiate fruiting. Long colonization but very rewarding multi-year harvests on logs.
🦁 Intermediate
Lion's Mane Hericium erinaceus
Medicinal Fruiting
60–70°F (15–21°C)
Prized for powerful nootropic and neuroprotective properties. Requires very high humidity and fresh air exchange. Browning indicates CO2 stress.
🌿 Expert
Gourmet Fruiting
55–65°F (13–18°C)
Highly prized culinary and medicinal mushroom. Extremely long colonization time. Most successfully cultivated outdoors on buried oak logs.
🌾 Intermediate
Enoki Flammulina velutipes
Gourmet Commercial enoki requires cold temperatures and high CO2 to produce the long, thin white stems seen in stores. Wild enoki has a very different appearance.
🍵 Intermediate
Gourmet Fruiting
50–60°F (10–15°C)
Popular in Japanese cuisine, especially miso soup. The natural gelatinous coating is a key culinary feature. Requires cold fruiting temperatures.
🌰 Intermediate
Chestnut Mushroom Pholiota adiposa
Gourmet Fruiting
55–65°F (13–18°C)
Beautiful caramel-brown caps with a rich nutty flavor. Grows in dense clusters. Popular in Asian cuisine.
🍷 Beginner
Wine Cap Stropharia rugosoannulata
Gourmet Fruiting
50–70°F (10–21°C)
Excellent outdoor species for garden beds and wood chip mulch. One of the largest cultivated mushrooms. Very rewarding for outdoor growers.
🔴 Advanced
Medicinal Fruiting
70–80°F (21–27°C)
One of the most revered medicinal fungi in traditional Chinese medicine. Long cultivation time but extremely valuable. Spore release can coat everything in reddish-brown powder.
🦃 Intermediate
Turkey Tail Trametes versicolor
Medicinal Fruiting
60–70°F (15–21°C)
One of the most studied medicinal mushrooms. PSK extract (Krestin) is an approved cancer adjunct therapy in Japan. Beautiful multicolored concentric rings.
⬛ Expert
Medicinal Parasitic fungus that grows exclusively on birch trees in cold northern climates. Essentially impossible to cultivate — wild harvest only. Takes decades to grow naturally.
🧡 Advanced
Cordyceps Cordyceps militaris
Medicinal Fruiting
65–70°F (18–21°C)
Cultivatable alternative to the rare wild C. sinensis. Produces bright orange finger-like fruiting bodies. Requires careful humidity and light management.
💊 Intermediate
Shiitake (Medicinal) Lentinula edodes
Medicinal Fruiting
55–65°F (13–18°C)
Beyond culinary use, shiitake contains lentinan — a polysaccharide used in cancer treatment in Japan. The dried form concentrates medicinal compounds.
✨ Beginner
Psilocybe cubensis Psilocybe cubensis
Psychedelic Fruiting
70–75°F (21–24°C)
Most widely cultivated psychedelic species. Robust, forgiving, and well-studied. Hundreds of named strains with varying potency and appearance. Legal status varies by jurisdiction.
🛸 Expert
Psilocybe azurescens Psilocybe azurescens
Psychedelic One of the most potent psilocybin-containing species known. Outdoor cultivation only in cold coastal climates. Native to the Pacific Northwest coast of North America.
🌊 Advanced
Psilocybe cyanescens Psilocybe cyanescens
Psychedelic Cold-weather outdoor species with distinctive wavy cap margins. Commonly found naturalized in wood chip garden beds. Significantly more potent than P. cubensis.
💙 Advanced
Panaeolus cyanescens Panaeolus cyanescens
Psychedelic Fruiting
75–80°F (24–27°C)
Tropical dung-loving species with 2–3x the potency of P. cubensis. Requires warm, humid conditions. Pronounced blue bruising reaction.
🎩 Expert
Psilocybe semilanceata Psilocybe semilanceata
Psychedelic One of the most widely distributed psilocybin mushrooms. Found in grasslands across Europe and North America. Not cultivatable — wild harvest only. Iconic conical cap with distinctive nipple.
🏔️ Expert
Wild One of the most prized edible mushrooms in the world. Forms mycorrhizal relationships — extremely difficult to cultivate. Found near dying elms, ash trees, and burned areas in spring.
🌟 Expert
Chanterelle Cantharellus cibarius
Wild Fruiting
55–70°F (13–21°C)
One of the world's most celebrated culinary mushrooms. Forms mycorrhizal relationships with oak, beech, and pine — impossible to cultivate. Wild harvest only.
👑 Expert
Wild Fruiting
50–65°F (10–18°C)
The 'King of Mushrooms' in European cuisine. Mycorrhizal with spruce, pine, and oak. Cannot be cultivated. Highly sought after and expensive at market.
🐔 Intermediate
Chicken of the Woods Laetiporus sulphureus
Wild Fruiting
60–75°F (15–24°C)
Bright orange and yellow shelf fungus that grows on hardwood trees. Can be cultivated on buried logs. One of the best wild mushroom meat substitutes.
⚪ Beginner
Giant Puffball Calvatia gigantea
Wild Fruiting
55–70°F (13–21°C)
Can grow to the size of a basketball or larger. Only edible when pure white inside — yellow or brown interior means it's past prime. Produces trillions of spores.
🎺 Expert
Black Trumpet Craterellus cornucopioides
Wild Fruiting
55–65°F (13–18°C)
Prized by chefs for its intense smoky flavor. Mycorrhizal — cannot be cultivated. Very difficult to spot due to dark color against forest floor.
🌰 Intermediate
Pioppino Agrocybe aegerita
Decomposer Fruiting
55–65°F (13–18°C)
Popular in Italian cuisine. Long, elegant stems with caramel-brown caps. Requires cold shock to initiate fruiting.
❄️ Intermediate
Velvet Shank Flammulina velutipes (wild)
Decomposer Wild form of enoki. Grows in winter on dead hardwood, often through snow. Very different appearance from commercial enoki — orange-brown caps with velvety dark stems.
💜 Intermediate
Decomposer Beautiful purple-lilac mushroom. One of the few species that can be cultivated on compost. Cold-weather fruiter.
🖊️ Beginner
Shaggy Mane Coprinus comatus
Decomposer Fruiting
50–65°F (10–18°C)
Fascinating autodigesting mushroom that liquefies itself into black ink within hours of maturity. Must be harvested and eaten when still white and firm.
🌿 Expert
Hen of the Woods (Maitake) Grifola frondosa
Decomposer Fruiting
55–65°F (13–18°C)
Prized both culinarily and medicinally. Grows at the base of oak trees. Outdoor buried log cultivation is the most reliable method.
💛 Beginner
Oyster Mushroom (Golden) Pleurotus citrinopileatus
Gourmet Fruiting
65–75°F (18–24°C)
Stunning bright yellow clusters. Tropical species that prefers warm conditions. Very fast colonizer. Flavor is milder and slightly sweeter than pearl oyster.
🌳 Intermediate
Elm Oyster Hypsizygus ulmarius
Gourmet Fruiting
55–65°F (13–18°C)
Often confused with oyster mushrooms but grows differently — individual caps rather than clusters. Excellent culinary mushroom with firm texture.
🎋 Expert
Matsutake Tricholoma matsutake
Wild One of the world's most expensive mushrooms, prized in Japanese cuisine. Mycorrhizal with pine — impossible to cultivate. Can fetch $1,000+ per pound in Japan.
🌲 Expert
Agarikon Laricifomes officinalis
Medicinal One of the longest-lived organisms on Earth — individual specimens can live for 75+ years. Used medicinally for over 2,000 years. Critically endangered due to old-growth forest loss.
🔥 Beginner
Oyster Mushroom (Phoenix) Pleurotus pulmonarius
Gourmet Fruiting
65–75°F (18–24°C)
Warm-weather oyster variety. Very similar to pearl oyster but prefers warmer temperatures. Excellent for summer grows.
🥦 Expert
Cauliflower Mushroom Sparassis radicata
Gourmet Fruiting
50–65°F (10–18°C)
Spectacular cauliflower-like fruiting body that can weigh up to 30 lbs. Found at the base of conifers. Limited cultivation success reported.
⚡ Beginner
Shiitake (3782 Strain) Lentinula edodes
Gourmet Fruiting
55–65°F (13–18°C)
Fast-fruiting warm-weather shiitake strain. Significantly faster than traditional strains. Excellent for indoor supplemented sawdust blocks.
🩸 Expert
Bleeding Mycena Mycena haematopus
Decomposer Fruiting
50–65°F (10–18°C)
Fascinating tiny mushroom that exudes a dark red latex when cut. Not edible. Grows in dense clusters on decaying hardwood. A beautiful species for mycological study.