PURPOSE: To obtain a new culture medium consisting of non-wooden powdery particles capable of culturing mushrooms hitherto considered impossible to culture, e.g. Lentinus edodes and Gonoderma lucidum.

CONSTITUTION: This artificial culture medium for mushroom cultivation is ibtained by compounding a culture medium mainly consisting of non-wooden powdery particles with lignin-containing natural particles having lignin at the ratio of ≥10wt.% in mixed and dispersed state. The highly lignin-containing natural powdery particles are selected from nut shells (shells of hard fruits, e.g. a Japanese chest nut, a coconut, an acorn, a walnut, a date shells of a mangosteen, buckwheat husk, fermentation lees of an agave (tequila lees) and shells of cottonseeds.