With thousands of different species and interesting uses in medicine and food, mushrooms are literally everywhere. Believe it or not, some people even dedicate their entire lives to the study of mushrooms and their amazing abilities. That’s cool and all, but we’ll stick with eating them on the occasional slice of pizza.
You don’t need to be a mycologist (thank goodness) to psychedelic mushroom strains explore the funky fungi that the world has to offer. Learn a little bit about each marvelous mushroom and see what they have in store!
One of our favorite mushrooms is called maitake, known for its many culinary and medicinal uses. It has an intriguing look, a delicious flavor, and texture, plus many health properties that can benefit your body and mind.
Today we’re exploring the ins and outs of the maitake, giving you all the relevant facts and figures so that you can add them to your home cooking repertoire. We’ll also talk about a few outstanding snacks that use maitake as a key ingredient and all the good stuff that they can give you. Let’s learn what makes maitake such a fun guy (get it?).
Maitake Mushroom Basics
What exactly is a maitake mushroom, and what makes it unique from the thousands of other members of the mushroom kingdom? We’re pretty sure that not all mushrooms can be eaten, but there’s probably more to it than that.
Origin and Appearance of the Maitake Mushroom
The maitake – recognized by scientists as Grifola Frondosa – is a species of mushroom native to China, Europe, and North America. Its scientific name comes from a mythical beast resembling a half-lion, half-eagle. That’s right. This mushroom is so good that it’s literally legendary.
The word maitake translates to “dancing mushroom” in Japanese but depending on who you ask, you might also hear this mushroom called hen-of-the-woods, ram’s head, or sheep’s head.
These names give us a slightly better idea of what this psychedelic mushroom strains mushroom looks like: large clusters of multiple gray-brown caps, featuring curled or wavy shapes that create a tightly-packed appearance of multiple fans twisted and bunched together. Basically, what we’re saying is that if you saw it out in the wild, you’d probably be majorly freaked.
Maitake is a polypore mushroom, meaning it forms huge fruiting bodies on the sides and at the bases of trees. The fact that these mushrooms can span many feet in height and width whileweighing up to 40 kilos, which explains why some call maitake king of mushrooms.
