What is Lanmaoa asiatica?
Lanmaoa asiatica is a wild bolete, a fleshy mushroom with pores instead of gills, in the family Boletaceae. It has a rose-red to brick-red cap, yellow pores and yellow flesh that turn blue within seconds of being cut or pressed. It grows with pines and oaks in southwest China and neighbouring regions.
It is the type species of the genus Lanmaoa, which Gang Wu, Zhu L. Yang and colleagues at the Kunming Institute of Botany separated from the broad old concept of Boletus on the basis of DNA phylogenies. Before that work, material now called L. asiatica was usually filed under names such as Boletus sp. or confused with European species.
Where does the name Lanmaoa come from?
The genus honours Lan Mao (兰茂), a fifteenth-century physician and naturalist from Yunnan. His regional materia medica, the Diannan Bencao, is one of the early written records of Yunnan’s plants and fungi. The epithet asiatica simply marks it as the Asian member of the genus.
What does it look like?
Caps are usually 4 to 12 cm across, convex to flat, dry and slightly velvety, rose-red to dull red. The pore surface is bright yellow. The stipe is yellow near the top and flushed red lower down. Every part stains blue quickly when bruised, and the cut flesh blues within seconds.
Colour varies with age, weather and light. Old caps fade toward pinkish brown, and rain can wash the surface paler. That variability is one reason identification relies on several characters together, and on DNA when it matters. Our identification guide goes through them.
Where does it grow?
It forms ectomycorrhizal partnerships with trees, mainly Yunnan pine and Benguet pine together with oaks and chinquapins. Most records come from Yunnan at roughly 1,500 to 2,600 m. It fruits in the summer monsoon, from late June to September in Yunnan, and earlier at similar altitudes further south.
Is it the same as jian shou qing?
Partly. Jian shou qing (見手青, “turns blue when touched”) is a Yunnan market name for several bluing boletes, not one species. Traders often add a colour: red, yellow or black. Lanmaoa asiatica is the usual identity of the red form. Market baskets can mix species.
Why do researchers study it?
Three reasons come up most often. It is a well-defined species in a genus that was only recently delimited. Its blue-staining pigments are a classic system for studying fungal pulvinic acids. And it is linked, in clinical reports from Yunnan, to poisonings with unusual visual hallucinations whose chemical cause is still unknown.
Poisoning reports usually involve people who ate the mushroom undercooked. Patients describe seeing small figures, sometimes called lilliputian hallucinations. Analyses reported so far have not found psilocybin, and to our knowledge the responsible compound has not been characterised in a peer-reviewed paper. Check the current literature before relying on this statement, because the question is under active study.
What should a first-time buyer know?
Decide what your protocol needs before choosing a format. Intact cells mean Fresh, in season only. Long-term storage and extraction suit Fresh-Dried. Replicate analytical samples suit the single-batch powder. Every batch carries a certificate of analysis. Whatever the format, cook it well before eating and never eat it raw.
Our comparison of fresh, dried and powder for research sets the formats side by side.
References
- Wu G. et al. (2016). Four new genera of the fungal family Boletaceae. Fungal Diversity 81.
- Wu G. et al. (2016). One hundred noteworthy boletes from China. Fungal Diversity 81.
- Index Fungorum and MycoBank entries for Lanmaoa and Lanmaoa asiatica, for the full nomenclatural citation.