Shiitake S75 Isolated Spore Syringe – 10cc
$20.00
Shiitake S75 is a cultivated genetic of Lentinula edodes, the species behind one of the world’s most recognizable gourmet mushrooms. Known for its rich brown caps, pale gills, firm stems, and white reproductive material, shiitake combines classic mushroom morphology with a long history of culinary cultivation and hardwood decomposition.
Product Description
Shiitake S75 is a cultivated strain of Lentinula edodes, an East Asian wood-decaying species with centuries of history as a cultivated food mushroom.
Its fruiting bodies follow a familiar cap-and-stem structure, with convex brown caps that broaden with maturity, pale crowded gills, and firm centrally positioned stems. Young caps may display lighter cracking, scales, or texturing across the darker surface, creating the characteristic shiitake appearance.
Despite its brown fruiting body, shiitake produces light reproductive material. Its spore deposit is white to pale, while individual basidiospores are smooth, thin-walled, and essentially colorless under transmitted-light microscopy.
In nature, L. edodes is associated with decaying hardwoods, particularly trees in the Fagaceae family such as oak and related species. Its ability to break down lignocellulosic plant material connects the mushroom directly to forest nutrient cycling and also underlies its long history of wood-based cultivation.
S75 represents one cultivated genetic within this much larger species. That distinction matters: “shiitake” tells us the species, while S75 identifies a particular cultivated genetic within it.
About this strain
S75 is a cultivated strain of the gourmet species Lentinula edodes. While S75 is established in commercial culture collections, a reliable public record documenting its original breeder and exact pedigree is limited, so its history should not be reconstructed from unsupported commercial claims.
The species itself gives us plenty to study. Shiitake develops brown, convex-to-flattening caps with pale gills and firm central stems. Its reproductive material creates a striking contrast with the cap: mature shiitake produces a pale spore deposit composed of smooth, hyaline basidiospores.
L. edodes is a hardwood-decomposing fungus with a particularly strong historical association with trees in the oak family. Modern genomic research has revealed considerable genetic diversity within shiitake, including multiple evolutionary lineages within what we currently call L. edodes.
S75 reminds us why the genetic after the species name matters.
Shiitake describes the mushroom.
S75 tells us which shiitake we're studying.
