What is the Chinese “Lingzhi”? – a taxonomic mini-review

“Lingzhi” is a fungus found in China for about 2000 years, renowned for its immense values in traditional Chinese medicine and culture. This fungus was generally assigned to Ganoderma lucidum, a species originally described from the UK. In the mid-nineties of the twentieth century, molecular phylogenetic analyses indicated that collections named G. lucidum in East Asia were in most cases not conspecific with G. lucidum found in Europe. However, the scientific name for the “lingzhi” found in China remained unclarified ever since. To clarify the identity of this fungus, two groups of Chinese mycologists have simultaneously gathered morphological and molecular evidence. One group concluded that “lingzhi” belonged to G. sichuanense, a species which was collected from Sichuan, a province in southwestern China, while the other group stated that the “lingzhi” is an undescribed species and, thus, named it as G. lingzhi. Our molecular phylogenetic evidence showed that G. lucidum s. str. occurs not only in northwestern and northeastern China but also in the highlands of southwestern China, where it has been commercially cultivated. In other words, both G. lucidum s. str. and G. lingzhi occur in natural environments in China, where they have been cultivated. Due to the phenotypic plasticity and morphological stasis, DNA sequence data play a vital role in characterizing the species within the G. lucidum-complex. Because the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence has been successfully generated only once from the holotype of G. sichuanense, it suggests that the DNA in the holotype might have been largely digested. To settle the disputation and to clarify the relationships and taxonomic issues among G. lingzhi, G. sichuanense, G. sinense and other species in the complex, an epitype for G. sichuanense and for G. sinense from their type locality should be selected, and nucleotide sequences of more informative DNA markers should be used to delimit the species in the complex in the near future. In view of its economic, medicinal and cultural importance, the widely cultivated G. lingzhi is nominated as the fungus of the year (2013) for the journal Mycology.