Fu Ling Pi

Poria cocos (now Wolfiporia extensa or W. cocos) is a wood-decay fungus in the Polyporaceae family that forms large, irregular, subterranean sclerotia attached to the roots of pines, especially Pinus massoniana and other species. The sclerotium is a hard, dense, tuber-like body 10-30 cm or more across, with a thin, wrinkled, dark brown to blackish outer rind and an interior of solid, fine-grained, white to pale pink flesh composed of densely packed hyphae embedded in polysaccharide matrix. Aerial fruiting bodies are rarely seen in cultivation, and the medicinal trade focuses entirely on the sclerotium. Fu Ling Pi specifically denotes the dried outer rind or peel pared off the sclerotium, a thin, brown, papery to leathery strip (Wikipedia; POWO).