Drunken Mushroom (Psilocybe zapotecorum)

🧬 Overview
🍄 Identification
🌍 Habitat and Distribution
🔬 Psychoactive Compounds
🧠 Experience
📝 Synonyms

🧬 Overview

Psilocybe zapotecorum is a psilocybin mushroom, celebrated for its vivid history and potent psychoactive effects. It’s named for the indigenous Zapotec people of Oaxaca, Mexico, where it’s known as the "Crown of Thorns" or “Hongo Borracho” (Drunken Mushroom). Traditionally used in ceremonies, this mushroom remains important in indigenous culture and modern psychedelic research.

Edibility: ⚠️ Psychoactive (contains psilocybin and psilocin).

🍄 Identification

Cap: 0.79 to 5.12 inches (2 to 13 cm) wide, conical to convex, often with a papilla or depressed center. Its color transitions from yellowish-brown to cream-yellow, then darkens to black with age. The cap edge is scalloped when young and may curl upwards as it matures. The white flesh bruises cyan blue then turns black.
Gills: Begin as cream-colored, becoming violet-brown with age. They are sinuate or adnate, occasionally slightly decurrent.
Spores: Dark violet-brown, oblong to subellipsoid, measuring (5) 6 - 7 (-8) x (3-) 3.5 - 4.5 (-5) μm, with a short apiculus and germ pore.
Stem: 1.18 to 10.23 (3 to 26 cm) long and 0.5–1 cm thick, white to gray, bruising blue-black when damaged. Covered in white scales, especially near the base. May have a long pseudorrhiza anchoring it to the substrate.

🌍 Habitat and Distribution

This mushroom thrives in subtropical and humid cloud forests, near rivers, creeks, and ravines, often growing from steep mossy walls. Found across South and Central America, it is native to Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and beyond, fruiting in gregarious clusters of up to 50 mushrooms in rich, damp environments.

🔬 Psychoactive Compounds

Known for its potent effects, Psilocybe zapotecorum contains psilocybin concentrations of 17.9 ± 1.7 mg/g, along with other tryptamines like psilocin, baeocystin, and aeruginascin, yielding a combined tryptamine profile of 22.5 ± 3.2 mg/g. The mushroom’s distinct blue bruising indicates high psilocybin content, which turns black over time due to enzymatic reactions.

🧠 Experience

Ingesting this mushroom may produce intense visual, auditory, and perceptual changes, often with a sense of timelessness, heightened emotions, and spiritual insight. Its effects are deeply valued in both therapeutic and ceremonial contexts, offering profound experiences of connection and personal insight.