Psilocybe caerulescens

Description

🧠 Psilocybe caerulescens is a psilocybin-rich mushroom revered for its entheogenic properties, commonly used by Mazatec shamans and potentially by the ancient Aztecs. With active compounds psilocybin and psilocin, it shares cultural significance with Psilocybe mexicana and Psilocybe aztecorum.

Common names: Landslide Mushroom, Spain (Derrumbe).

Mushroom Identification

🍄 Cap

• Size: 0.39 to 3.94 inches (1 to 10 cm) cm broad.

• Shape: Convex to bell-shaped, sometimes with a slight center depression.

• Color & Texture: Moist caps are yellowish-brown to reddish-brown with a silvery-blue metallic sheen, fading to beige when dry. Hygrophanous (color-changing when drying) and bruises blue to olivaceous when touched.

• Surface: Viscid and gelatinous when moist with a slightly striated edge.

🍃 Gills

• Attachment: Adnate to sinuate (curving towards the stem).

• Color: Starts whitish-yellow, aging to deep violaceous brown, while edges remain faintly white.

🌱 Stem (Stipe)

• Size: 0.79 to 5.12 inches (2 to 13 cm) long, 5–12 mm thick.

• Color & Texture: Whitish to reddish-brown or blackish, often hollow and bruises blue upon handling.

• Additional Features: Sometimes shows rhizomorphs at the base; veil is prominent but doesn’t leave a lasting ring.

🔬 Microscopic Features

• Spores: Hexagonal to subrhomboid, dark violaceous-brown.

• Dimensions: (5.6)6.7–8(9) x (4) 4.8–6.4 (7.2) x 4–4.8 (5.5) μm.

• Other Cells: Includes lageniform and fusiform cystidia, along with thin-walled hyphae in both the pileus and stipe tissues.

🌎 Habitat & Growth

Found in June to October, this mushroom grows on disturbed ground with little plant life, preferring muddy, orangish-brown soils rich in woody debris. Psilocybe caerulescens was initially documented in Alabama in 1923 and has since been spotted in parts of Georgia and South Carolina.

Synonyms and Varietes

• Psilocybe caerulescens ssPsilocybe caerulescens var. albida

• Psilocybe caerulescens var. mazatecorum

• Psilocybe mazatecorum

• Psilocybe caerulescens var. nigripes

• Psilocybe mazatecorum f. ombrophila

• Psilocybe mazatecorum f. heliophila

• Psilocybe mixaeensis

• Psilocybe caerulescens ssPsilocybe mazatecorum var. ombrophila

• Psilocybe wrightii

• Psilocybe caerulescens var. ombrophila

• Psilocybe heliconiae

• Psilocybe weilii

• Psilocybe villarrealiae

• Psilocybe subannulata

• Psilocybe bispora

• Psilocybe caribaea

Photo sources: Alan Rockefeller (CC BY 4.0)