Panaeolus bisporus

Identification

🍄 Cap:

• Size: 15–30 mm (sometimes 28 mm), small and delicate.

• Shape: Semiglobate, bell-shaped (campanulate) to convex, hardly expanding with age.

• Color: Tan to gray, fading to black when covered in spores; dark gray-brown but dries whitish.

• Surface: Smooth but slightly wrinkled and pitted with age, with a defined ring zone. Margin often torn or pedaled.

🌿 Gills:

• Attachment: Adnexed to narrowly attached.

• Color: Crowded, mottled gray to olivaceous black, with distinctive white edges.

• Width: About 5 mm broad.

📏 Stem:

• Size: 65–120 mm long, 2–3 mm thick.

• Color: White to translucent gray, sometimes reddish-brown or grayish.

• Surface: Fibrous, punctate-pruinose from apex to 1/3 down, slightly fibrillose toward the base.

• Special Features: Hollow and bruises heavily blue where handled.

🖤 Spore Print: Jet black.

🌍 Distribution & Habitat: Panaeolus bisporus, also known as Copelandia bisporus/bispora, is a rare but widespread mushroom found in Hawaii, Southern California, North Africa, Spain, and Switzerland. It thrives in nutrient-rich environments, particularly on dung from buffalo and cattle, or occasionally on manured soil. A notable discovery includes its growth in a churchyard lawn in Belp, near Bern, Switzerland. It typically appears in spring or during rainy seasons and grows scattered to gregariously.

🔬 Microscopic Features

• Spores: Elliptical, smooth, opaque with a germ pore, measuring 12–14 x 8–10 x 6–7.5 μm.

• Basidia: Two-spored (a key identification feature), 18–23 x 8–10 μm.

• Cheilocystidia: Bottle-shaped, clear, 20–30 μm.

• Metuloids: Yellow-brown walls, 40–55 x 12–15 μm, sometimes with excreted crystals.

Psychedelic Traits

This rare little mushroom is a gem among psilocybin-containing fungi, making it particularly intriguing to both researchers and enthusiasts. Its psychoactive properties are attributed to the compound psilocybin, a naturally occurring tryptamine that converts to psilocin in the human body. Psilocin interacts with serotonin receptors in the brain, leading to altered perceptions, introspective experiences, and heightened sensory awareness.

🌟 Potency: While specific studies on the potency of Panaeolus bisporus are limited, its close relatives like Panaeolus cyanescens and Panaeolus tropicalis are among the most potent psilocybin mushrooms. This suggests that P. bisporus may have comparable effects, especially given its strong tendency to bruise blue—a common indicator of high psilocybin content.

🔬 Why the Blue Bruising? The characteristic blue bruising occurs when psilocybin or psilocin oxidizes upon physical damage or environmental stress. In P. bisporus, this reaction is pronounced, making it not only a fascinating identification feature but also a visual hint of its psychoactive potential.

🍄 Psychedelic Experience: Consuming psilocybin mushrooms can lead to a range of experiences depending on dosage, environment, and individual sensitivity. Users commonly report:

• Enhanced visual and auditory perception.

• Profound emotional introspection.

• A sense of connection with nature and the universe.

• Time distortion and synesthesia (e.g., "hearing" colors or "seeing" sounds).

⚠️ Safety First!: Due to its psychoactive properties, Panaeolus bisporus should be approached with caution:

• Identification is critical. Misidentifying mushrooms can lead to accidental poisoning.

• Legal status varies. Psilocybin mushrooms are regulated or illegal in many regions.

• Safe usage matters. Psychedelic experiences should occur in a controlled, comfortable environment with trusted individuals, especially for beginners.

Look-Alikes

• Panaeolus tropicalis

• Panaeolus cambodginiensis

• Panaeolus cyanescens
  Distinguishing Feature: Microscopically, P. bisporus has two-spored basidia, unlike its relatives.

Photo source: Alan Rockefeller CC BY-SA 4.0