Poria

Wolfiporia extensa, synonym Poria cocos, is a fungus of the polypore family, commonly called hoelen, poria, tuckahoe, China root, fu ling or matsuhodo. It is a wood-decay fungus with a subterranean habit, and it forms a large, long-lasting underground sclerotium resembling a small coconut. It was first recorded in Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica around the sixteenth century, for adverse urination, oedema, spleen deficiency and diarrhoea, and it is used widely as a medicinal mushroom in Chinese medicine, to promote urination, to invigorate the spleen and to calm the mind. In China it is also used to make fuling jiabing, a snack. Some Native American tribes reportedly ate the tubers. The species is a source of triterpenoids, pachymic acid, polysaccharides, choline and histidine.