If ganoderma lucidum sounds like a spell you’d hear at Hogwarts, you’re not alone. This polysyllabic show-off isn’t a new potion ingredient—it’s a gloriously glossy mushroom that’s been around for thousands of years, showing off in Traditional Chinese Medicine long before it started crashing health food store shelves.
Also known as reishi (because ganoderma lucidum is a mouthful, even for fungi enthusiasts), this mushroom isn’t something you toss in your pasta. Nope. It isn’t very pleasant. Like, “I just licked tree bark during allergy season” bitter. But that hasn’t stopped it from becoming the Beyoncé of the fungus world.…