NL·0187Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Cordyceps militaris
- Family
- Cordycipitaceae
- Native to
- Temperate Northern Hemisphere: Europe, Asia and North America
- Habitat
- Temperate forest, Grassland, Woodland edges
Scarlet caterpillar club
Cordyceps militaris
Also calledChong cao hua 虫草花 (Chinese, 'cordyceps flower') · Sanagitake (Japanese) · Bei chong cao 北冬虫夏草 (Chinese) · Puppen-Kernkeule (German)
Bright orange clubs that rise from moth and butterfly pupae buried in soil, which the fungus has killed and filled with mycelium. Unlike its Himalayan cousin it can be grown on grain, and it is sold in Asian markets as dried 'cordyceps flower' for soup.
Cordyceps militaris, commonly known as the caterpillar fungus, is a species of fungus in the family Cordycipitaceae, and the type species of the genus Cordyceps, which consists of hundreds of species. The species was originally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 as Clavaria militaris. Cordyceps militaris parasitizes insects and is used in traditional Chinese medicine. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iInfects lepidopteran larvae and pupae, replaces their tissues with mycelium and then fruits from the corpse
- iiProduces cordycepin (3′-deoxyadenosine), an adenosine mimic studied as an anticancer and antiviral compound
- iiiNeeds light to make its orange carotenoid pigments
- ivIts thread-like ascospores break into many short part-spores
At the table
Eatendried cultivated fruiting bodies (soups, tea)
The cultivated orange fruiting bodies are eaten in Chinese and Korean soups and teas. Do not confuse with other insect fungi, or with orange club and coral fungi of unknown edibility, when foraging. Most people should buy cultivated product.
In the medicine cabinet
| Tradition | Use |
|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese medicine | A cheaper substitute for Ophiocordyceps sinensis (yartsa gunbu) as a lung and kidney tonic |
| Korean folk medicine | Tea for fatigue and stamina |
Weight of evidence
Traditional. Long historical use; little or no modern clinical evidence.
Active compounds
cordycepin, adenosine, carotenoids, polysaccharides
Fruiting body & spores
Spores
Ascospores (not seeds) long and thread-like, multiseptate, breaking into short cylindrical part-spores about 3–6 × 1 µm; no conventional spore print
- Dispersal
- Ascospores ejected from flask-shaped perithecia in the club's orange head; asexual conidia also infect insects
How to cultivate it
Hardiness (USDA zones)
- Light
- Bright indirect light, 12 hours daily (needed for orange colour)
- Water
- Humidity 80–90%
- Soil
- Brown rice or other grain with nutrient broth; commercially also silkworm pupae
- Propagation
- Liquid culture; strains degenerate quickly, so start from fresh culture
- To harvest
- About 6–8 weeks
- Climates
- Temperate (indoors)
- 1Fill jars with brown rice and a nutrient broth (e.g. potato-dextrose with a little peptone) and sterilise
- 2Inoculate with liquid culture and incubate in the dark at about 18–22 °C for 1–2 weeks
- 3Once colonised and yellowing, give 12 hours of light daily and cool nights (about 16–20 °C)
- 4Harvest the orange clubs at about 5–8 cm, then dry at low heat
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
Temperate Northern Hemisphere: Europe, Asia and North America
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
No plate in the Source Library names this exact species, so these show its closest relatives as the old naturalists drew them: same genus, or the same kind of plant. Click a plate to read the page it came from, with translation.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Cordyceps militaris in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
Since the 1980s, Chinese growers have mass-produced it as 'chong cao hua', a substitute for wild Himalayan caterpillar fungus, which costs more than its weight in gold. It gave the 'cordyceps' of popular culture an easy-to-grow stand-in.
Curiosity
Cordycepin was first isolated from Cordyceps militaris in 1950, one of the earliest nucleoside antibiotics discovered.
Kinship
Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 119118.