The caterpillar fungus, another well known Chinese medicinal ingredient, looks like a small, flat, dried-up insect larva, and there is nothing about it that would remind one of a mushroom. Is the caterpillar fungus-called "winter worm, summer grass" in Chinese-a plant or an insect?
至於另一種常見的中藥「冬蟲夏草」，看起來乾扁如小蟲、完全與菇蕈聯想不到一起，冬蟲夏草究竟是蟲還是草？