Buy Lanmaoa Asiatica supplies one species, Lanmaoa asiatica, to academic and independent laboratories. Most of our customers are in the United States. This page explains where the material comes from and what happens to it between the forest floor and your bench.
Who supplies this material?
Buy Lanmaoa Asiatica is a single-species supplier. We buy wild-harvested Lanmaoa asiatica from picker teams in Yunnan, China and in the Cordillera of northern Luzon, the Philippines. Every lot is cleaned, identified, dried or chilled, given a batch number and documented before it is offered for sale.
We do not cultivate the species. We know of no published method for fruiting it reliably in culture, which is typical for ectomycorrhizal boletes that depend on a living host tree. All material is wild-collected during the rainy season.
Why only one species?
Working with one species lets us keep a reference collection, compare lots across seasons and spot misidentifications quickly. Red-capped bluing boletes are easy to confuse in a market basket. A narrow catalogue means every picker team knows exactly what we accept and what we reject.
Several boletes sold in Yunnan under the market name jian shou qing (見手青, “turns blue when touched”) look alike in the field. Our journal piece on Lanmaoa asiatica and similar boletes covers the features we use to separate them.
Where is it harvested?
Two regions. In Yunnan the material comes from pine and oak forest at roughly 1,800 to 2,600 m, mostly in Chuxiong and Yuxi prefectures. In the Philippines it comes from Benguet pine forest at 1,400 to 2,200 m in Benguet and Mountain Province. Each region has its own page with harvest details.
- Yunnan harvest: forest type, altitude bands, calendar and handling.
- Cordillera harvest: the same for the Philippine lots.
What happens between picking and dispatch?
Fruiting bodies are brushed clean in the field and reach a collection point the same day. Within 12 hours of picking, each lot is either chilled to 2–4 °C for the Fresh format or sliced and dried. Lots are photographed, weighed, identified and given a batch number before release.
- Collection. Pickers bring material down in ventilated baskets. Insect-damaged, waterlogged or over-mature caps are rejected at the collection point.
- Sorting and identification. Each lot is checked against the characters in the species description. Doubtful specimens are set aside, not mixed in.
- Chilling or drying. Fresh lots go into cold storage. Lots for drying are sliced 5–7 mm thick and dried at 45 °C until moisture is below 8% by loss on drying.
- Batching. A batch is one origin, one harvest date range and one drying run. The batch number goes on every bag and every certificate.
- Testing and release. Moisture, identity and contaminant screening are recorded on the certificate of analysis. See Lab & Quality.
Can I visit or audit the supply chain?
For institutional buyers with a documented need, yes, by arrangement during the harvest months. Write to us with the purpose of the visit and the institution involved. For most customers the batch record, the harvest photographs and the certificate of analysis give the same information without travel.
How do I contact you?
Use the contact form or reply to any order email. Messages are answered within one working day, usually sooner. Please include your order reference (it starts with BLA-) if your question is about an existing order, because it lets us find the batch record straight away.