Psilocybe cyanescens (sometimes referred to as the potent Psilocybe or as wavy caps) is a species of potent psychedelic mushroom. The main compounds responsible for its psychedelic effects are psilocybin and psilocin. It belongs to the family Strophariaceae. A formal description of the species was published by Elsie Wakefield in 1946 in the Transactions of the British Mycological Society based on a specimen she had recently collected at the Kew Gardens. Although she did not publish a formal description until 1946, she had collected it as early as 1910.

In 1962, a six year old girl in Oregon experienced a high fever and seizure after eating mushrooms that were later identified as Psilocybe cyanescens, dying three days after being hospitalized. Similar cases in children (not resulting in death) have been reported in San Francisco. The mushroom is not generally regarded as being physically dangerous to adults. All of the psychoactive compounds in P. cyanescens are water soluble, and despite these reported incidents, it is not normally considered poisonous. Since the psychoactive compounds are water soluble, the fruiting bodies can be rendered non-psychoactive through parboiling, allowing their culinary use. However, since most people find them overly bitter and they are too small to have great nutritive value, this is not frequently done.

Psilocybe cyanescens can sometimes fruit in colossal quantity; more than 100,000 mushrooms were found growing in a single patch at a racetrack in England.

Description

Appearance

Psilocybe cyanescens has a hygrophanous pileus that is caramel to chestnut-brown when moist, fading to pale buff or slightly yellowish when dried. Caps generally measure from 1.5–5 cm across, and are normally distinctly wavy in maturity. The color of the pileus is rarely found outside of P. cyanescens and closely related species, so it can be a useful identifying feature for the species complex. The cap, like most of the rest of the mushroom, can stain blue when touched or damaged. Lamellae adnate, light brown to dark purple brown in maturity, with lighter gill edges. The lamellae of P. cyanescens can bruise blue. There is no distinct annulus, but immature P. cyanescens specimens do have a cobwebby veil which may leave an annular zone in maturity. Both the odor and taste are farinaceous.

P. cyanescens has smooth, elliptical spores which measure 9 - 12 x 5 - 8 µm. The type collection of the species from Kew Gardens featured no pleurocystidia, but North American collections are characterized by common clavate-mucronate pleurocystidia. Both European and North American specimens have cheilocystidia.

Fresh Psilocybe cyanescens material generally bruises blueish or blue-green where damaged, and the staining remains visible after drying. This staining is most noticeable on the stem (which is white when undisturbed) but can also occur on other parts of the mushroom, including the gills, cap, and mycelium. This staining is due primarily to the oxidation of psilocin. (Psilocybin cannot be oxidized directly, but is quickly converted via enzymatic action to psilocin at injury sites which can then be oxidized, so even specimens with little psilocin still generally blue.)

Related species

P. cyanescens is closely related to a number of other psilocybes, including Psilocybe azurescens, Psilocybe serbica, Psilocybe subaeruginosa, and a number of others. P. cyanescens and its close relatives are sometimes referred to as the 'Psilocybe cyanescens complex' or as the 'caramel-capped psilocybe complex,' due to their extremely similar appearance and habit. There is phylogenetic evidence that there are two distinct clades in the complex, one consisting of P. cyanescens and P. azurescens and allies, and the other consisting of P. serbica and allies. It has also been shown that Psilocybe weraroa (previously known as Weraroa novae-zelandiae) is very closely related to P. cyanescens despite its vastly dissimilar appearance.

Another apparent close relative of P. cyanescens is Psilocybe sp. 'cyanofriscosa', a mushroom found in the San Francisco Bay Area of which no formal description has yet been published.

It is often difficult or impossible to distinguish between members of the P. cyanescens complex except by range without resorting to microscopic or genetic features.

Although not closely related, Psilocybe cyanescens has been at least occasionally confused with Galerina marginata with fatal results. The two mushrooms have generally similar habits and appearances, and bear a superficial resemblance to each other such that inexperienced mushroom-seekers may confuse the two. The two species can grow side-by-side, which may add to the chance of confusion.

Habitat and distribution

Psilocybe cyanescens grows today primarily on wood chips - especially in and along the perimeter of mulched plant beds in urban areas, but can also grow on other lignin-rich substrates. P. cyanescens does not grow on substrate that is not lignin-rich. Fruitings have been reported in natural settings previously (although most appear to be migrations from mulched plant beds.) The species does not typically grow on mulch that is made from bark.

In the United States, P. cyanescens occurs mainly in the Pacific Northwest, south to the San Francisco Bay Area. It can also be found in areas such as Western Europe, Central Europe, parts of Australia and parts of west Asia (Iran). The range in which P. cyanescens occurs is rapidly expanding, especially in areas where it is not native as the use of mulch to control weeds has been popularized. This rapid expansion of range may be due in part to the simple expedient of P. cyanescens mycelium having colonized the distribution network of woodchip suppliers and thus being distributed on a large scale with commercial mulch.

Although it has been speculated that P cyanescens' native habitat is the coniferous woodlands of the north-western United States or coastal dunes in the PNW, the type specimen was described from mulch beds in Kew Gardens, and there is no widely accepted explanation of P. cyanescens original habitat. Paul Stamets has suggested that P. cyanescens may originally have been a niche saprophyte of pinecones whose range was allowed to drastically expand with the introduction of ornamental mulch.

Fruiting is dependent on a drop in temperature. In the San Francisco Bay Area, this means that fruiting typically occurs between December and February, and fruiting in other areas generally occurs in fall, when temperatures are between 50-65°F.

P. cyanescens often fruits gregariously or in cespitose clusters, sometimes in great numbers. 100,000 P. cyanescens fruits were once found growing on a racetrack in the south of England. Solitary fruits are sometimes also found.

Indole content

The fruits of P. cyanescens have been shown to contain many different indole alkaloids including psilocybin, psilocin, and baeocystin. It has also been shown that P. cyanescens mycelium will contain detectable levels of psilocin and psilocybin, but only after the formation of primordia.

Indole content has been shown to be higher in North American specimens of P. cyanescens than in European ones. This difference appears to be genetic in origin (rather than caused by environmental factors) because North American spores grown in Europe contain similar levels of indoles to North American specimens.

North American fruiting bodies of P. cyanescens have been shown to contain between 0.66% and 1.96% total indole content by dry weight. European fruiting bodies have been shown to have between 0.39% and 0.75% total indole content by dry weight.

North American specimens of P. cyanescens are among the most potent of psychedelic mushrooms. Its potency means that it is widely sought after by users of recreational drugs in those areas where it grows naturally.

North American and European collections

North American and European collections of P. cyanescens differ in some ways. It is not yet clear if these differences are significant enough to mean they represent different species. If the features are significant enough to represent different species, the European collections would represent P. cyanescens and the North American collections would represent an undescribed species, since the type collection of P. cyanescens was European.

North American collections are characterized by abundant capitate pleurocystidia, but the original type collection from England lacks pleurocystidia. There is not agreement as to the significance of this difference. It has also been noted that European collections of P. cyanescens generally have lower concentrations of psilocin and psilocybin than North American collections do. Additionally, the spores of North American and European collections cannot be macroscopically or microscopically differentiated.

Most cultivation of P. cyanescens in Europe has been done with genetic material from North America, so if there was originally a distinction between European and American P. cyanescens, it may have become blurred.

Cultivation

P. cyanescens - like many other psilocybin containing mushrooms - is sometimes cultivated.

Due to the fruiting requirements of the species, it is challenging but possible to get P. cyanescens to produce fruits indoors. Outdoor cultivation in an appropriate climate is relatively easy. Yield per pound of substrate is low when compared to other psilocybin containing mushrooms for both indoor and outdoor cultivation. The combination of poor yield and difficulty may explain why P. cyanescens is grown less frequently than other some other psilocybin containing mushrooms.

P. cyanescens mycelium is much easier to grow than actual fruits are, can be grown indoors, and is robust enough that it can be transplanted in order to start new patches. Mycelium can also be propagated via stem butt transplantation.

Many of the cultivation techniques used with other members of the genus Psilocybe can be used to grow P. cyanescens as well.

Cultivated P. cyanescens contain approximately the same concentration of psilocin and psilocybin as natural examples do.

Legal status

P. cyanescens specimens do not fall under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances because the Convention does not cover naturally occurring plants that incidentally contain a scheduled drug. However, many countries choose to prohibit psilocybin containing mushrooms, including P. cyanescens, under their domestic laws.

Countries that have banned or severely regulated the possession of P. cyanescens include the United States, Germany, New Zealand, and many others. Because spores contain no psilocybin or psilocin, they are not always covered by the same legislation as mushrooms or mycelia. Because of this, Psilocybe cyanescens spores are legal to possess in most of the United States. (It is illegal to possess spores in Georgia and Idaho, and illegal to possess them with the intent to produce mushrooms in California.) In many other countries, spores themselves are illegal.

In some jurisdictions, cultivation is treated differently than possession of wild occurring mushrooms, and in some jurisdictions knowledge that a mushroom contains psilocybin (or psilocin) is necessary in order to be prosecuted.

Gallery

References

Krieglsteiner G. J. (1984): Studien zum Psilocybe cyanescens-Komplex in Europa.–Beitr. Kenntn. Pilze Mitteleur. 1: 61-94.

Borovička J. (2005): The bluing Psilocybe species of the Czech Republic IV. The problem of Psilocybe cyanescens Wakef. Mykologický Sborník 82 (1): 1-21. ISSN 0374-9436.

Borovička J. (2008): The wood-rotting bluing Psilocybe species in Central Europe – an identification key. Czech Mycology 60 (2): 173-192. ISSN 1211-0981.

External links

Psilocybe cyanescens at MykoWeb

Category:Entheogens Category:Psychoactive fungi cyanescens Category:Psychedelic tryptamine carriers Category:Fungi of Europe Category:Fungi of North America

de:Blauender Kahlkopf es:Psilocybe cyanescens fr:Psilocybe cyanescens gl:Psilocybe cyanescens it:Psilocybe cyanescens pt:Psilocybe cyanescens ru:Псилоцибе синеющая fi:Myrkkymadonlakki tr:Psilocybe cyanescens