Range: British Columbia to San Francisco
Bluing PSILOCYBE CYANESCENS: Audubon plate 31 p.721
Found in autumn scattered, grouped, or clustered in woods,
on earth, among leaves and twigs, and
occasionally on decomposing wood - in northwestern USA.
Psilocybe Cyanesens
(description from Enos)
Cap:
3/4" - 1 5/8" wide bluntly rounded cone shaped
to
convex when young
becoming expanded to convex or umbonate convex
margin incurved
surface smooth, sticky when moist from a separable
jelly-like film
appearing translucent with a radially lined
margin when
moist
overall color chestnut when moist
fading to yellowish or yellowish rust
staining blue when bruised
umbo more pronounced when dry
(Audubon stresses "undulating or wavy margin"
)
Gills:
Almost far apart
up to 13/64ths broad
adnate to sinuate
edges pale
faces cinnamon becoming dark smoky reddish
brown as
spores mature
Spore print:
dark smoky purplish brown
elliptical 9-12 x 5.5 - 8.3 microns smooth
pore at tip
Stem:
2 3/8 - 3 1/2" by 1/16" thin
fairly rigid
base somewhat enlarged and often curved near
the base
surface of stem covered with silky fibers
color whitish
bluing when bruised or drying
veil snow white and thin extending in web
like strands
from stem to margin of cap when young
Season:
September - November
Habit/ Habitat:
Several to many in coniferous mulch. Scattered
to
clustered on the earth among leaves and dead
twigs in woods, occasionally on decomposing
wood.
[Compiler's note: see below, most
common on wood chip mulch (see: Notes from
Stamets
below.)]
Range:
British Columbia to San Francisco
Note:
#3 above states of P. cyanescens that one
dry gram
yields 2 mg of psilocybin.
Notes from Stamets (@1993):
Introduction: First cultivated in Washington
and Oregon
in the late 1970's, this complex of
is primarily grown outdoors in wood chip beds.
Indoor
cultivation is possible but pales in
comparison to natural culture methods.
Species in the P. cyanescens complex are not
as high
yielding per lb. of substrate as some
of the fleshier mushrooms in the genus and
hence have
little or no commercial appeal.
However, these mushrooms enjoy a popular reputation
and
are sought by thousands of
eager hunters every fall. Because they are
infrequently
encountered in the wild, many
mycophiles create a mushroom patch in the
privacy of
their backyards.
Common Names:
Cyans
Caramel Caps
Blue Angels
Potent Psilocybe
Fantasi-takes
Taxonomic Synonyms & Considerations:
The name Psilocybe is Greek and means "bald
head" which
refers to the smooth surface
texture of the cap. [...]
This complex of species is fairly easy to
identify. The
mushrooms are generally
cosmopolitan, and virtually absent from virgin
forest
ecosystems. They thrive in sawdust
and chips from alder and Douglas firs. The
mushrooms
are collyboid -- forming clusters
that resemble the genus Collybia in habit
only. The
caps are uniquely caramel to chestnut
colored and strongly hygrophanous. The cap
is featured
with a separable gelatinous skin
and brown gills which produce purple brown
spores. The
base of the stems radiate
clusters of thick white rhizomorphs. Upon
bruising, the
flesh turns bluish to dark purple.
These features separate this group of mushrooms
from
all others.
This group can be further delimited into two
sub-
groups: those possessing or lacking
pleurocystidia. Species having pleurocystida
can be
lageniform or fusoid-ventricose with a
narrow or bulbous apex.
Description:
Caps are hemispheric
at first, soon convex,
expanding to broadly convex and
eventually plane
in age, 2-l0 cm. in diameter.
Caps are strongly hygrophanous,
sometimes chestnut
especially when old or when the
gills have fully matured. Cap
margins are
typically even at first, and
straightening with age. Some varieties
develop a pronounced,
distinct and undulating
margin.
Other species
in this group have even margins.
Gills are colored brown to dark
brown, often
mottled, and bluntly attached to the
stem, typically with a thin whitish
margin. The
stem is centrically attached to the
cap, silky white to dingy brown near
the base, often
covered with fine fibrils which
may or may not bruise bluish. The
stems are cartilaginous,
even, straight to
sinuous, usually swelling and curved
towards the
base. The base of the stem is usually
fitted with a thick, radiating array
of white rhizomorphs.
Although mushrooms can be
found individually, the majority
grow in gregarious
or collyboid clusters.
Distribution:
The species
represented in this group of mushrooms
are found throughout the
temperate forests
of the world, including but not
limited to the coastal Pacific
Northwest of
North America, northeastern North
America, the British Isles,
eastern Europe,
southern Argentina, North Africa,
New Zealand and temperate
regions of Australia.
Natural Habitat:
Primarily preferring
deciduous woods, especially
in riparian habitats, these
mushrooms fruit
in the fall. Possibly a saprophyte
of fir seed cones, they show a
particular fondness
for the decorative mulch
("beauty bark") used in landscaping
around newly
constructed buildings. In fact, they
are common in urban and
suburban areas
and are actually rare in natural
settings. Ideal locations for
collecting this
mushroom are in the landscaped
property of government facilities:
courthouses,
libraries, utility companies, and
even police stations. Less obvious but
productive locations
are rhododendron, rose and
azalea gardens. These mushrooms
are frequently
found along freeways, around soil
mixing companies, and nurseries.
These mushrooms
are particularly fond of wood chip
piles.
Microscopic Features:
Spores are purple
brown, 8-12 x 5-7 microns,
ellipsoid, smooth, featuring a distinct
germ pore at
one end. Gill margins are banded with
long throated, finger-like,
non-forked or
forked sterile cells. Some species
have pleurocystidia while most do
not. Clamp connections
are present.
Mycelial Characteristics:
These Caramel
Capped Psilocybes behave similarly
in creating a luxuriantly satin-
like mycelia
on sterilized malt agar media. The
mycelium is white at first, soon silky
rhizomorphic,
usually radiating outwards with
diverging fans from the location.
Mycelium often,
but does not necessarily, bruises
bluish.
Fragrance Signature:
Sour, unpleasant,
nearly nauseating to some
people, fragrance reminiscent of
spoiling corn.
Natural Method of Cultivation:
This mushroom
conforms to essentially the same
strategy rugoso -annulata. (See
growth parameters
for that species.)