Species library › Hericium › Hericium erinaceus
Fungi Well documented

Hericium erinaceus

Lion's mane

A tooth fungus of hardwoods, found across North America, Europe and Asia. It produces a single white, hanging mass of long spines from wounds in living or dead trees, especially oaks. In the wild it fruits in late summer and autumn, or through winter in mild climates. Cultivators grow it on supplemented hardwood sawdust, colonising warm and fruiting cool in very humid, well-ventilated air.

Hericium erinaceus
Photo: Lebrac, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day IntermediateTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Very humid airBand in Plantistry
Light ShadeDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal rest

Where it grows wild

It is a white-rot decomposer that also colonises living trees. It fruits singly or in pairs from wounds, scars and cut stubs on living hardwoods, especially oaks, and on logs and snags. Hosts include oak, beech, maple, ash and eucalyptus. It causes a white pocket rot in the heartwood, and the fruitbody grows from a hidden attachment point in the wood.

It is a lowland to mid-elevation forest fungus. The few records with an elevation lie at 121–297 m, which doesn't represent the whole range.

North America (Canada to Mexico)Central AmericaEuropeTemperate Asia

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

Grow Hericium erinaceus? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.