The Difference

Fruiting body. Never mycelium.

There are two ways to make a “mushroom” supplement, and they are not remotely the same thing. One starts with the actual mushroom. The other starts with its root system grown on rice — and legally gets to use the same word on the label.

Half the mushroom products sold today are the second kind. Here’s how to tell them apart.

What Rootly Uses

Fruiting Body

The mushroom you’d recognize

  • The actual mushroom — harvested, then extracted
  • Concentrated beta-glucans, triterpenes, and actives
  • The part used in clinical research on functional mushrooms
  • 10:1 hot-water extract — 2,500mg equivalent per serving
What Cheap Brands Use

Mycelium on Grain

Roots grown on rice, sold as mushroom

  • Up to 85% rice or oat starch — not mushroom
  • Grown in tanks, dried and powdered with the grain
  • A fraction of the beta-glucans of fruiting body
  • Still legally labeled “mushroom” anyway

If a brand won’t tell you which part they use, it’s mycelium. Every time.

How to read any mushroom label in 30 seconds

  1. Look for the words “fruiting body.” If the label says “mycelium,” “mycelial biomass,” or just “mushroom powder” with no part named — that’s your answer.
  2. Look for an extract ratio. A ratio like 10:1 means the raw mushroom was concentrated down. No ratio usually means plain 1:1 powder.
  3. Look for named species with amounts. “Proprietary blend” with no breakdown is a curtain. Every species should be on the panel.
  4. Check for grain in the other ingredients. Rice, oat, or “myceliated brown rice” near the top of the list means you’re buying starch.

Run our label through that same test — it’s printed in full on the product page.

Read our label