Leisha Reishi has always held a certain mystery for me, the kind of presence that feels both ancient and majestic. If Chaga is the king of mushrooms, then surely Reishi is the queen. Her polished, lacquered body glows with a deep red sheen, shaped like a throne or a crown, rooted in the shadows of wood yet shining like fire in the forest. She is known in Chinese medicine as the Mushroom of Immortality, the spirit that strengthens life force, balances the mind, and protects the heart.
Many years ago, when I lived on another piece of land here in Ecuador, I inoculated some Fique logs with Reishi spores. I had read that this mushroom, so famous in Asia, could grow well in our climate if given the right host and patience. I left those logs in the soil of that place, and then life moved me on. Seasons passed, years stretched, and the memory of those inoculated logs slipped into the background of my life.
Then much later I was called back. The people who had purchased the property reached out to me and asked for help. Their soils needed restoring, their gardens needed vision, and I was invited to walk the land again to create a plan. I wandered through the place with eyes tuned to the soil, to the plants, to the rhythms of the land. And then I saw her. The Reishi had not only survived but flourished. Big, alive, and beautiful, she had transformed those old logs into a living shrine. It felt like meeting an old friend I had planted years before, a friend who had waited silently, growing in the shadows until the time was right to show herself.
I was gifted a baby from that mother Reishi, and I brought her with me. I keep her carefully stored, her form tinctured now so her medicine is preserved and ready to share. To hold her is to hold a bridge between past and present, a continuity of care that began with spores, patience, and faith, and that now carries forward into tinctures and medicine.
Reishi is known throughout the world for her ability to strengthen immune function, calm the nervous system, and protect the heart. She does not push or stimulate, she steadies. She teaches the body to remember its own strength and teaches the spirit to rest within that strength. Traditional Chinese Medicine describes her as a tonic for the Shen, the spirit or consciousness, which is why Reishi has always been seen as a mushroom not just of the body but of the soul. She is a longevity ally, a balancer of blood pressure and circulation, an immune fortifier, and a guide for those walking through stress or grief.
Unlike other mushrooms that may feel strictly physical, Reishi has an unmistakable spiritual dimension. When I sit with her, whether in the garden or as tincture in my hands, I feel her presence as steady and regal, like a queen who governs with quiet power. She reminds me that resilience is not just about survival but about calm, dignified endurance.
Modern research has revealed what the old texts proclaimed centuries ago. Reishi contains triterpenes and polysaccharides that regulate immune response, calm inflammation, protect the liver, and support cardiovascular health. She balances cholesterol, steadies blood sugar, and nourishes the nervous system. More and more studies affirm her adaptogenic qualities, helping the body manage stress, fatigue, and immune challenges. Yet even with the scientific language, what remains most striking is her presence. She is not just chemistry, she is character.
In the apothecary I craft tinctures from Reishi with care. Her body is tough, woody, almost impossible to chew or eat directly, but this hardness carries her medicine. Through tincturing her strength is coaxed out, dissolved into liquid, and shared. Each bottle is a distillation of years of patient growth, from spores in Fique logs to the bright varnished fruiting bodies that gleamed like lacquered wood in the forest. When I take the tincture, a few drops at a time, I feel her steadiness moving through me. It is subtle but undeniable, a kind of inner strengthening that is at once physical and spiritual.
I often reflect on how she waited for me. Those logs I had inoculated and left behind were not forgotten by her. She grew anyway, quietly, deeply, until she was ready to be seen. When I returned years later, there she was, radiant and alive, as though she had been waiting for me to remember her. To be gifted her baby felt like being entrusted with a lineage, a living torch to carry forward.
Reishi is not just a mushroom to be consumed, she is an elder to be honored. She asks for respect, patience, and gratitude. She grows slowly, teaching us to value time and endurance. She heals deeply, reminding us that strength and peace can exist together. She is queen not because she dominates, but because she holds presence, guiding and balancing.
Here in Ecuador she has found a home. She grows in our soils, in our gardens, in the balance of shade and wood that we prepare for her. She reminds me that the traditions of one place can take root and thrive in another, if tended with care. Her story here is not imported but integrated, woven into the soil that I tend and the apothecary we build.
When I share Reishi tincture with others I tell them the story of those logs, of leaving and returning, of surprise and reunion. Because it is not just about the compounds she carries but about the relationship she offers. She teaches patience, she teaches presence, and she teaches resilience.
The Mushroom of Immortality, the queen of fungi, has walked with humans for thousands of years. She appears in ancient scrolls and painted on silk, praised by emperors and monks alike. Now she appears in our gardens in Ecuador, glowing on the side of a Fique log, reminding me that medicine is everywhere if we remember to look and to wait.
Each tincture bottle carries her spirit. It carries the strength of her body, the lessons of her patience, and the memory of that day when I found her again, thriving against all odds. She is my reminder that nothing planted with care is ever truly lost, that the seeds and spores we set into the world continue to grow, and that sometimes the gifts we gave long ago return to us when we most need them.
Visit our store https://livingground.art/store/ and search “reishi”
