Magic Blue Gym (Gymnopilus aeruginosus)

🏷️ Description

Gymnopilus aeruginosus, affectionately known as the "Magic Blue Gym," is a striking edible psychoactive mushroom renowned for its vibrant hues and fascinating ecology. Common in the Pacific Northwest, this wood-loving species forms gregarious clusters on decaying logs, stumps, and wood chip mulch. Let's dive into the captivating details of this mystical fungus!

🗝️ Key Identifiers:

• Large, scaly cap with vivid blue-green patches.

• Dusty with rusty-orange spores.

• Bitter taste and blue bruising when handled.

• A delicate, fleeting yellowish veil leaves a faint hairy zone near the stem’s apex.

• Solid when young, becoming hollow with age.

✨ Special Characteristics

• Psychoactivity: Contains the hallucinogenic compounds psilocybin and psilocin, giving it the iconic blue-green bruising effect.

• Odor & Taste: Mild odor with a farinaceous (starchy) note and slight anise undertones. The taste, however, is bitter.

• Bruising: Blue-green bruises often appear on the cap and base, a clue to its magical nature.

🔎 Identification

🧢 Cap

• Size: 1.97 to 5.91 inches (5 to 15 cm) across.

• Shape: Starts convex with incurved margins, becoming broadly convex or flat with age.

• Texture & Color: Dry, scaly, and fibrillose with variable colors—often adorned with blue-green, pink, or vinaceous patches when young, later cracking into tawny or reddish-brown scales.

• Flesh: Whitish to pallid, with greenish or bluish tones that turn yellowish or pinkish-buff as it ages.

• Special Feature: Often exhibits blue-green bruising on the surface, a hallmark of psilocybin presence.

🍂 Gills

• Attachment: Adnexed to adnate, sometimes slightly decurrent or seceding with age.

• Color: Buff to yellow-orange or ochre, becoming rusty as the mushroom matures.

• Spacing: Close to crowded, broad, with edges that are even to slightly rough.

🌾 Stem

• Size: 1.97 to 4.72 inches (5 to 12 cm) long, 0.39 to 0.59 inches (1 to 1.5 cm) thick.

• Texture: Smooth, dry, and covered with appressed fibrils that fade over time.

• Color: Matches the cap—whitish with greenish or bluish hues when fresh, yellowish or pinkish-brown when dry.

🍊 Spore Print

• Color: Rusty-orange to cinnamon.

• Microscopic Spores: Elliptical, 6–9 × 3.5–4.5 μm, with roughened surfaces and no germ pore.

🌍 Habitat & Distribution

• Found growing gregariously to cespitosely (in clusters) on hardwood and conifer debris: stumps, logs, sawdust, and wood chips.

• Season: Spring, fall, and winter.

• Regions: Widely distributed across the Pacific Northwest, southern U.S. states (e.g., Tennessee and Georgia), and parts of Japan and Korea.

🌟 Look-Alikes

1. Gymnopilus luteofolius: Features red-brown caps with lavender tones but lacks prominent bluish bruising.

2. Gymnopilus punctifolius: Smaller spores, no veil, and a nearly bald cap, with lilac mycelium at the base.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Jimmy Craine (CC BY 3.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Atsushi Nakajima (CC BY 4.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Atsushi Nakajima (CC BY 4.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Atsushi Nakajima (CC BY 4.0)