Lion's mane

What it is

Lion's mane (Hericium erinaceus) belongs to a group called tooth fungi. It has no gills or cap. The mushroom is a rounded white mass covered in soft, hanging spines, a bit like a frozen waterfall or a shaggy pom-pom. In Japan it's called yamabushitake. In the eastern US it grows wild on hardwoods, but nearly everything you'll find for sale comes from indoor farms.

Most of the small indoor farms in our directory grow it, so it's one of the easier specialty mushrooms to buy direct. The growers list below shows who sells it.

Taste and cooking

Raw, it smells faintly sweet. Cooked, it's mild and savory with a soft, stringy bite that people often compare to crab or lobster. That texture is the whole appeal, so cook it in a way that keeps it.

• Tear, don't slice. Pull it apart into chunks or thick slabs along the grain. Torn edges brown better than cut ones.
• Cook the water out first. Lion's mane holds a lot of moisture. Put it in a hot, dry pan and press it with a spatula until it stops squeaking and starts to color, then add butter or oil and salt.
• Press it into "steaks." A heavy pan or a foil-wrapped brick on top of a thick slab gives you a golden crust and a dense interior.
• Season late. Salt early pulls out more water and it will stew.

It works in "crab" cakes, on toast with garlic butter, in tacos, or seared and finished with soy sauce and lemon. Like most mushrooms, eat it cooked.

How it's grown

Farms grow lion's mane on bags or blocks of hardwood sawdust, usually mixed with a grain or bran supplement. After the mycelium colonizes the block, growers cut a small opening and move it into a cool, humid fruiting room with plenty of fresh air. The mushroom pushes out of the opening and is ready in a couple of weeks.

Because it grows indoors on a schedule, lion's mane is available year-round. It's also a popular home kit. Our guide to growing mushrooms at home covers kits and where to get them.

Storing it

Penn State Extension recommends keeping fresh mushrooms in the refrigerator, in their original container or a paper bag, for up to three days. A plastic bag traps moisture, and lion's mane spoils fast when it's wet.

Fresh lion's mane is bright white to cream. As it ages it turns yellow, then tan, and the spines start to smell sour. A little yellowing at the tips is fine to cook; a sour or fishy smell means it's done. If you can't use it in time, cook it first and freeze the cooked mushroom.

Where to buy lion's mane

21 growers in our directory list lion's mane by name@if ($ohio->isNotEmpty()), 10 of them in Ohio. Availability changes with the season and the harvest, so check with the farm before you go.

See all 21 growers in the directory, or start with Ohio.

Does the science say…?

Lion's mane has drawn a lot of research interest, mostly for brain health. The human studies so far are small, and most tested supplements rather than the mushroom you'd cook.

• Mild cognitive impairment. A 2009 double-blind trial in Japan gave 30 older adults with mild cognitive impairment either lion's mane powder tablets or a placebo for 16 weeks. The lion's mane group scored higher on a cognitive function scale at weeks 8, 12 and 16, and the scores fell again within four weeks of stopping (Mori et al., 2009). Thirty people is a small study, and the effect faded when the supplement stopped.
• Healthy young adults. A 2023 pilot trial with 41 healthy adults found faster performance on one attention task an hour after a single dose, and a trend toward lower self-reported stress after 28 days that did not reach statistical significance. The authors noted null findings as well and said the results "should be interpreted with caution" (Docherty et al., 2023).

Taken together, this research suggests lion's mane may deserve larger studies. It doesn't show that eating lion's mane prevents or treats dementia or any other condition. If you're considering supplements, talk with your doctor first, especially if you take prescription medication.