Where to find mushrooms! Watered lawns w/automatic sprinklers. Schools, Schools, football/baseball football/baseball fields. Borders of forest lands, new forest roads, tress (cottonwoods, (cottonwoods, alders, willows, box elders, sweet gums, hornbeams, American beech) also around Douglas firs (needles/cones) Monterey pine. Moist soil along streams/ponds/lakes. streams/ponds/lakes. Grazing area of grass fed domesticated animals. In and around tall sedge grass and low lying wetlands of pastures, trees that separate pastures. Devastated reoccurring cataclysms - Flooding rivers, landslide, Around construction site
Picking mushrooms If a gilled mushroom has p urplish urplish brown to black spores and the flesh bruises its very likely psilocybin
Take the whole thing, spore print in first few hours, convex caps are better to p rint
Psilocybe azurescens One of the most potent species in the world and exhibits one of the strongest bluing reaction. Flesh becomes indigo black where damaged. Silky white stem, caramel-colored cap, relatively large stature and broad but pronounced pronounced umbo are representative representative features. Cap: Cap: 3-10 cm broad. Conic to convex, expanding to broadly quickly. Flat with age with a pronounced pronounced umbo, surface smooth, sticky when moist, with a separate pellicle . Chestnut to caramel in color, bruising blue to blue black when damaged. Gills: Gills: Ascending, sinuate to adnate , brown. Mottled, edges white. Stem: Stem: 90-200 mm long x 3-6 mm thick, silky white, fibrous. Base of stem thickening downwards, often curved. Spore-print: dark purplish brown to purplish black in mass. Habitat/Season: deciduous wood-chips and/or in sandy soils rich in organic debris. The mushroom has an affinity for coastal dune grasses. This mushroom mushroom naturally grows often prolifically along the northern Oregon coast near Astoria, favoring the land adjacent to the shoreline. Dune grasses especially Ammophila maritima, for which it is closely associated, generating an extensive, dense and tenacious mycelial mat. Causes the whitening of wood. Cold weather tolerant. Fruiting begin in late September and continue well after the first frost, often into l ate December/early December/early January. Dosage: Extremely Extremely potent. 1 to 2 large mushrooms or 2 to 4 small specimens Loses potency when stored for months.
Psilocybe baeocystis Moderately active, loses significant potency in drying or from damage. Abundant where wood wood chips and bark (Douglas firs have been used for landscaping. Often found amongst ivy as spreads over cultivated landscapes near newly constructed buildings. Dark colored cap makes it difficult to see ag ainst wood chips Cap: Cap: 1.5-5.5 cm diameter. Dark olive brown to tan, occasionally steel blue. Becomes copper brown in the center when drying. Conic to bell shaped. Translucent Translucent when moist, appears pleated towards bottom portion of cap. Often staining blue to blue-green when damaged. Gills: Gills: attached cinnamon brown to gray, close with white edges Stem: Stem: 50-70 cm long, 2-3 mm thick. White to brownish surface sometimes covered with fine whitish fibers which may yellow towards apex. Spore-print: purplish brown brown Habitat/Season: solitary to gregarious to subcespitose on decaying conifer mulch, woodchips or lawns with high lignin content. Occasionally grows from fallen seed cones of Douglas fir. June to October in lawns. From late September through December and sometimes into January in mulched garden beds. From Eugene, Oregon to Seattle, Washington, up to British Columbia, Canada. Once considered rare, it is now common. Dosage: 1 to 2 large l arge mushroom mushroom specimens or from 2 to 4 small specimens, 1/5 oz. wet, 1/4 gram dry
Woodchip varieties
Lawn variety
Bluing
Psilocybe cyanescens Psilocybe cyanescens is recognized by a chestnut-brown, striate, wavy-margined cap that soon fades to yellow brown or buff, and bluestaining fruiting body. Moderately Moderately to highly potent. Toxic look-alikes in Galerina, Conocybe and Inocybe. Cap: Cap: 2-4 (5) cm broad. Conic to flat, wavy with age. Chestnut brown to caramel in young specimens. Fading to orange/dark yellow yellow with age. Tan when dry. Viscid when moist. Bruising bluish bluish to green/blue! Gills: Gills: Broad. Cinnamon brown to deep smoky brown. Edges paler. Smokey reddish brown Stem: Stem: 20-80 mm long x 2.3-5.5 mm thick. Curved with enlarged base. White with fine silky fibrils. Often bluing when damaged. Hollow. Spore-print: Dark purple brown. Habitat/Season: Habitat: Scattered to gregarious in humus enriched in woody debris among leaves and rotting wood. Under mixed woods at the edges of lawns, among alder wood chips and bark mulch. Often growing solitary to clusters and clumps in heavily mulched areas with r hododendrons hododendrons or rose bushes, ivy and s trawberry plants. Located in San Francisco, Francisco, California to British Columbia, Canada. Rare in the wild but abundant in manmade environments environments throughout the Pacific Northwest. Sometimes Sometimes more than 20 to 50 pounds may appear in a single location. September September through December. Late summer in watered watered areas to mid-winter. Dosage: 1 large specimen or from 2 to 3 small specimens. 1/2 gram dried.
Psilocybe cyanofibrillosa Weakly to mildly active. Strong bluing reaction yet loses over 70% of its potency from handling and drying. Fresh specimens probably much higher than chemical analysis. A few hundred pounds of this species mixed with Psilocybe cyanescens was collected from mulch piled along side of I-5 highway on both sides of the road between Eureka and Arcada, California. Cap: 1-4 x 3.5 cm broad. Conic to convex to broadly convex. Plain in age. Deep chestnut brown, hygrophanous, fading to pale tan or yellowish brown or grayish white in drying. Viscid when moist with a separate gelatinous pellicle. Gills: Adnate to adnexed. Light grayish when young becoming purplish brown in age with white edges. Stem: 30-70 mm long x 2-4 mm thick. Straight, equal to enlarged at base with f ibrils that become bluish when damaged. Yellow brown to light tan underneath. Sporeprint: Purplish brown. Habitat/Season: Scattered to gregarious among bush lupines in alder and willow wood chips and bark mulch. Common among rhododendron gardens and nurseries and especially flood plains where river meets Pacific Ocean. From northern California (Eureka/Arcada) north to British Columbia, Canada. September to December. Dosage: 1 large specimen, 2 to 5 small specimens. High in psilocin and low in psilocybin.
Psilocybe semilanceata Moderately active to extremely potent. In Pacific Northwest this species is one of the most common psilocybin mushrooms. Long Storage Life. Rarely bruises bluish. Many varieties, most forms have conic to campanulate caps with sharp umbo. Note that woodland Galerinas can coexist with grassland psilocybes, especially especially new pasture. Cap: .5-2.5 .5-2.5 cm broad. Twice as tall, conic with a raised nipple. Color is variable, EXTREMELY hygrophanous. From dark chestnut brown when moist soon drying to rusty brown to pale yellow when dry occasionally with olive tint. Margin striate and translucent when moist with a stic ky gelatinous pellicle. Gills: Adnate to adnexed, crowded and purple brown. Much darker than Psilocybe pelliculosa and ascending into the cap edges remaining pale.
Stem: 40-100 mm long. .75-2mm thick. Slender and smooth. Pale to rusty brown at base, where attached mycelium may become bluish, especially during drying. Tough pith which is usually crooked and can be wrapped around ones finger. Spore Print: Dark purple brown. Habitat/Season: Scattered to gregarious in pasture lands but not growing directly in manure. In Pacific Northwest of the United States, this species along with a similar macroscopic species, can be found in new well fertilized and manicured lawns, fields, or other grassy areas, especially where cattle and sheep graze. Very common around the base of sedge grass clumps and other tall rank grasses in pasture lands and in open meadows. Northern California to British Columbia, Canada, west of the Cascades and along the coastal areas of Oregon and northern California. Also can be found on new condo lawns in residential housing projects and golf courses. Season August through November-December. Dosage: 1 large shroom, 1/5 oz. wet, 1/4 gram dry [Erowid note: most P. semilanceata semilanceata are much smaller than 0.25 gram when dry).
Psilocybe subcubensis This species is macroscopically macroscopically similar to Psilocybe cubensis with the difference difference being in the size of the spores. The P. subcubensis has a smaller spore than P. cubensis. Moderately potent. It has been found that there is a tenfold tenfold variation in potency from wild specimens specimens probably due to sun exposure and nutrition. Easy to recognize by its size, golden color, well formed membranous membranous annulus, blue staining stem and veil and coprophilic habitat. Cap: 1.5-8 cm in diam., conic to convex, becoming campanulate to gradually expanding to plain. Color reddish Copper in center to a light golden brown with age fading to pale yellow or white near the margin with the umbo or center region remaining remaining cinnamon brown. Hygrophanous Hygrophanous in drying, remnants of a veil, and bluing in the edge of the cap when injured. Gills: Adnate to adnexed to seceding, close, narrow to slightly enlarged at center. Pale to grayish is younger cubensis. Becoming dark gray to deep vi olet gray to dark p urplish brown in maturity. Sometimes mottled with whitish edges. Stem: 40-150mm 40-150mm long by 5 -15mm thick. Thickening towards the base in most, equal, hollow, stem whitish to a creamy white or yellow brown when faded, easily staining blue where damaged. Fibrillose below the annulus. Spore print: Chocolate to p urple-brown. urple-brown. Habitat/Season: Gregarious, Gregarious, rarely solitary or scattered, on cow d ung, rarely on horse manure. manure. Also in rich soil in pastures and meadows, along roadsides in manure heaps. Largest fruitings are seen in two months prior to the hottest point of the year. Dosage: 1 to 20 shrooms, 2 oz. wet, 3 ½ grams dry.
Psilocybe stuntzii ∞
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Weak to Moderately active. Characteristic of its whitish, partial veil that bruises bluish or bluish tinged. Grows in great c olonies in large numbers. Field variety is slender and paler. There was a time when this mushroom mushroom appeared app eared in over 40 percent of all new lawns and mulched in areas in the Puget Sound region region of the Pacific Northwest. Due to a d isappearance isappearance of pastures south of Seattle in the th e Tukwilla-Kent-Auburn Tukwilla-Kent-Auburn areas, this shroom now only appears sporadically in certain well fertilized and manicured new lawns. It is also very common in wood chips, p referably alder. Cap: 1.5-5 cm broad. Obtusely c onic, expanding expanding to convex-umbo c onvex-umbonate nate or flat with age. Margin is striate and translucent when moist. Undulating and often eroding with age. Hygrophanous. Hygrophanous. Dark chestnut brown while lighter towards the center which is often Olive greenish at times, fading to a pale yellowish brown or pale yellow when drying. Viscid when moist from a gelatinous pellicle. Gills: Attachment Attachment adnate to adnexed, close to sub distant and moderately broad with three tiers of in termediate termediate gills. Color pale in younger bodies becoming brownish and eventually very dark brown. Stem: 30 to 60 mm long x 2-4 mm thick. Enlarged at apex and often curved, twisted and inflated at base. Dingy yellow to pale yellowish brown. Surface dry. Remnants of a veil remain and are usually bluish from natural injury when the c ap opens. With a whitish p ith. Staining blue to blue-green where injured. injured. Often rhizoorphs protruding from base. Spore print: Dark purplish grayish brown. Habitat/Season: Growing gregarious gregarious to subcespitose clusters and clumps in c onifer wood wood chips ch ips and bark mulch (alder wood), in soils rich in woody debris, in new lawns of freshly laid sod, fields, along roads, paths, in gardens. From North North of San Francisco to Eugene, Oregon to British Columbia. This species is c ommon ommon in lawns and grassy areas such as parks, fields, or any newly mulch g arden area throughout the western region of the Pacific Northwest. From late July th rough September September in lawns and grassy areas and from late September September through December in mulched garden beds. Dosage: 20 to 60 fresh specimens, 3/4 fresh ounce or 1-3 dried grams.
Psilocybe Pelliculosa ∞
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This small Psilocybe which is very much similar to Psilocybe silvatica and Psilocybe semilanceata, semilanceata, fruits abundantly along logging roads, clear cuts and pilings in the Pacific Northwest. The conic shaped cap, gregarious nature of fruiting, fibrillose patches on the stem, and bluing reaction at the base of the stem are distinguishable characteristics. Also appears in roadside mulched areas and parks. Cap: Cap: .5-2cm broad. Obtusely conic, becoming becoming conic-capa c onic-capanulate nulate with age. Chestnut brown when moist, dark dingy yellow to pale yellow when drying. Often with paler band along margin, frequently frequently tinged olive green in patches. Smooth surface, viscid when moist. Gills: Ascending. Cinnamon brown with white edges. Stem: 60-80 mm long x 1.2.5 mm thick. Pale. Cream to brown in age. Covered with white filaments. Larger at base. Stem: 60-80 60-80 mm long by 1-2.5 mm thick. Slightly enlarged at base. Covered with grayish fibrils. Whitish and browning at base. Blue green when bruised or with aging. Spore print: Purplish brown. Habitat/Season: Scattered to gregarious to cespitose on well-decayed conifer substratum and in mulch and soil rich in lignin. Prefers alder woodchips or bark mulch. Along paths in conifer forests and abandoned logging roads around alders and firs. Found Found mid to late fall to early winter. Dosage: 20 to 40 fresh mushrooms mushrooms or from 2-4 grams dried. Moderately Moderately weak.
