Psilocybe silvatica
Encyclopedia
Psilocybe silvatica, is a psilocybin mushroom
Psilocybin mushroom
Psilocybin mushrooms are fungi that contain the psychoactive compounds psilocybin and psilocin. There are multiple colloquial terms for psilocybin mushrooms, the most common being shrooms or magic mushrooms....

 of the Agaricales
Agaricales
The fungal order Agaricales, also known as gilled mushrooms , or euagarics, contains some of the most familiar types of mushrooms. The order has 33 extant families, 413 genera, and over 13000 described species, along with five extinct genera known only from the fossil record...

 family, in the section Semilanceatae, having psilocybin
Psilocybin
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic prodrug, with mind-altering effects similar to those of LSD and mescaline, after it is converted to psilocin. The effects can include altered thinking processes, perceptual distortions, an altered sense of time, and spiritual experiences, as well as...

 as main active compound. It is closely related to Psilocybe pelliculosa
Psilocybe pelliculosa
Psilocybe pelliculosa is a species of fungus in the Strophariaceae family. The fruit bodies, or mushrooms, have a conical brownish cap up to in diameter atop a slender stem up to long. It has a white partial veil that does not leave a ring on the stem. American mycologist Alexander H...

.

Description

  • The cap is 0.8— 2(2.5) cm broad and is obtusely conic, becoming broadly campanulate to broadly conic, often with an acute umbo
    Umbo (mycology)
    thumb|right|[[Cantharellula umbonata]] has an umbo.thumb|right|The cap of [[Psilocybe makarorae]] is acutely papillate.An umbo is a raised area in the center of a mushroom cap. Caps that possess this feature are called umbonate. Umbos that are sharply pointed are called acute, while those that are...

    . It is tawny dark brown when moist, fading to pale yellowish brown or grayish brown. It is even to striatulate when moist, smooth, hygrophanous
    Hygrophanous
    The adjective hygrophanous refers to the color change of mushroom tissue as it loses or absorbs water, which causes the pileipellis to become more transparent when wet and opaque when dry....

    , and viscid when moist from a thin gelatinous pellicle that is barely separable, if at all. It sometimes has a grayish-green tinge along the margin. It fades to pale buff.
  • The gills are adnate
    Adnation
    Adnation in plants is the "union of unlike parts; organically united or fused with another dissimilar part, e.g. an ovary to a calyx tube, or stamens to petals". This is in contrast to connation, the fusion of similar organs....

     to adnexed, close to subdistant, narrow to moderately broad, and dull grayish brown to cinnamon brown at first then smoky brown at maturity, edges remaining whitish.
  • The spores are dark purplish brown, (6.6)8.5 — 9.5(11) x (3.8)4 — 5.5(6) µm from 4-spored basidia, which are sometimes 2-spored.
  • The stipe is 2— 8 cm long by 1— 3 mm thick, equal to slightly enlarged at the base, tubular, and somewhat flexuous. It is pallid to brownish beneath a silky fibrillose covering. It becomes darker towards the base, partial veil poorly developed, cortinate, thin to obscure, and soon absent. It is slightly bluish-green at base.
  • It has a farinaceous taste and odor.
  • Microscopic features: Pleurocystidia are absent. The cheilocystidia are 24 — 34(40) x 4.4 — 6.6(8.8) µm, fusoid ventricose to lageniform, with a long flexuous neck, and are1.6 — 2.2 µm thick.

Habitat and formation

It is gregarious but not cespitose on wood debris or on wood chips or in well-decayed conifer substratum or among fallen leaves of hardwoods from the end of September until December. It is known from Ontario, Canada the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, and northern Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.
The Northwest and European finds are more recent; it was once only known in the northeast.
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