Ganoderma multipileum Hou 1950

Ganoderma multipileum grows on trunks of various species of angiosperms in the lowland areas of Taiwan, especially the tree species of Leguminosae (eg. Acacia confuse, Delonix regia). Its fruiting bodies occur on the trunk close to the ground. Young fruiting bodies sometimes develop from pileal surfaces of old ones, eventually forming imbricate pilei. This morphology was used to name this species. Ganoderma multipileum distributed in South and Southeast Asia was long regarded as conspecific with the famous medicinal fungus “Ganoderma lucidum” occurring in China, Japan and Korea. Recently, these two species were differentiated by a collaborative study conducted by researchers of this museum and in mainland China. This giant specimen was donated by Dr. Chi-Hsiung Tsai.