Cordyceps are found all over the world, but are most commonly found in Asia, with the highest density of species found in tropical rain forests. The traditional Cordyceps Sinensis grows naturally on caterpillars high in the mountains of China.
This of course begs the question “Where do cordyceps grow?”
One of the natural regions that Cordyceps grow in, as we’ve mentioned, is high up in the Himalayan Mountains, which are not only colder than many parts of the world but also have a thinner atmospheric pressure due to the higher altitude.
Where does the cordyceps fungus live?
The genus has a worldwide distribution and most of the approximately 600 species that have been described are from Asia (notably Nepal, China, Japan, Bhutan, Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand ). Cordyceps species are particularly abundant and diverse in humid temperate and tropical forests.
Then the mushroom’s bright tendrils grow out of the caterpillar’s head and up through the soil. Other Cordyceps species mature in a similar manner, growing inside-out from other insects’ bodies.
Where do Cordyceps mushrooms come from?
They are dispersed throughout the world from varied environments including rain forests. The natural habitat of Yarsagumba cordyceps is in the Himalayan Mountains-specifically the Tibetan Plateau-which presents a rather obvious barrier to just heading out and picking your own batch like you would with a more common mushroom.
Yet another inquiry we ran across in our research was “What is a Cordyceps mushroom?”.
Cordyceps is a mushroom that is EXPLODING in popularity in the United States for both cultivation and consumption. Cordyceps cultivation methods are diverse, in this post we walk through one method of cordyceps cultivation. More and more cordyceps can be found as a supplement in coops and other grocery stores.
They can be found nearly anywhere, from Australia to Japan, from the United States to China. Cordyceps militaris is a more commonly found mushroom, and this is the supplement that is most readily available on the market. This mushroom is far easier to cultivate for farming purposes.
What type of fungi is Cordyceps?
Cordyceps /ˈkɔːrdɪsɛps/ is a genus of ascomycete fungi (sac fungi) that includes about 400 species. Most Cordyceps species are endoparasitoids, parasitic mainly on insects and other arthropods (they are thus entomopathogenic fungi); a few are parasitic on other fungi.
The Cordyceps fungus is depicted as a core plot element in the video games The Last of Us (2013), The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014), and The Last of Us Part II (2020), in which a mutated form of the fungus infects humans and causes the collapse of civilization.
How many species of Cordyceps are there?
Though there are many species of Cordyceps (around four hundred, in fact), the most well known in the world of medicinal mushrooms is Cordyceps Sinensis, known colloquially as the Caterpillar Fungus. Indeed, many people use the term genus name when they mean that specific species.
This of course begs the question “How does Cordyceps infect other animals?”
This one attacks a host, replaces its tissue, and sprouts ominous stems that grow outside of its body. These stems eventually release spores into the air, infecting other hosts. What’s even more interesting is that there are many different Cordyceps species, each for a separate species of insect. Ants have it particularly bad.
What is Cordyceps sinensis?
The traditional Cordyceps Sinensis grows naturally on caterpillars high in the mountains of China. There are hundreds of different species of Cordyceps found all over the world. There are two main species, however, that are of interest for human consumption- Cordyceps sinensis and Cordyceps militaris.
The Cordyceps fruiting body is actually known as an “ascocarp”- but for our purposes, we can just refer to it as a mushroom! It is usually a long skinny fruiting body extending from the host, but can also be club-shaped. Cordyceps mushrooms are parasitic, meaning that they need a living host which will eventually be killed by the fungus.
This is a fungus that infects insects and arthropods. Oh, but this isn’t just any kind of fungus., and it’s special. This one attacks a host, replaces its tissue, and sprouts ominous stems that grow outside of its body. These stems eventually release spores into the air, infecting other hosts.