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Bear's Head Tooth culture isolate from Barbour County, West VirginiaHA-002

Barbour County, West Virginia

Bear's Head Tooth

Hericium americanum

Catalog HA-002

Format

About this format

Sealed syringe, drawn from a verified T1 mother culture. Ships with two sterile needles.

Lineage, honestly: this liquid culture is derived from the same T1 mother culture as our plates — the genetics in liquid form.

Limited Viability Guarantee

Every Redbird liquid culture is drawn clean from a verified T1 mother culture and sealed with two sterile needles. We stand behind it — within limits that are fair to both of us.

If your culture arrives contaminated or fails to show growth, and you followed the sterile protocol below, we’ll replace it free. One replacement per order.

Sterile Technique Required

  1. 01Work in a still-air box or in front of a flow hood. Never in open, moving air.
  2. 02Wipe the injection port and your work surface with 70% isopropyl alcohol before starting.
  3. 03Flame-sterilize the needle to glowing red, then let it cool, before every draw. Use only the sterile needles provided, kept capped until use.
  4. 04Wipe the inoculation port of your grain or substrate jar with alcohol before injecting.
  5. 05Inject, withdraw, and re-flame between jars. Never set a bare needle down on any surface.
  6. 06Keep the sealed syringe refrigerated until use and use it within its viability window.

Contamination caused by skipped steps, open-air work, reused or unsterilized needles, or technique error is not covered — that’s on the grower, not the genetics. We’re guaranteeing what we ship, not how it’s handled after.

Questions or a claim? Reach us before you toss anything — a clear photo of the issue helps us make it right.

Read the full guarantee →

About this isolate

Hericium americanum — bear's head tooth — grows as a cascade of branching, icicle-like spines on hardwoods such as beech, oak, maple, and hickory. It is a sought-after edible with a delicate, seafood-like character.

HA-002 was isolated from a wild fruiting on maple in Barbour County, West Virginia. This line shows a notable pink coloration and exceptional eating quality, and is known to develop distinctive "split ends" at the tips of its spines. Grower's note: this isolate is suspected to carry a higher density of active compounds, though this is an unverified field observation, not a tested claim.

Available as liquid culture, small plate, or full plate. Every Redbird line traces to the tree and county it came from.

Field Note

Off maple, with a notable pink coloration and exceptional eating — a standout in the collection, with distinctive split ends on the tips of its spines. Grower's note: we suspect a higher active-compound density in this isolate, an unverified field observation we share because it's interesting. A wild strain with a traceable history.

Origin
Barbour County, West Virginia
Collected from
Collected from maple
Species
Hericium americanum
Catalog
HA-002

A prized, live wild-collected culture isolate with a traceable history. It's a wild specimen, so results will track your conditions.