| Psilocybe caerulescens var. caerulescens | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Basidiomycota |
| Class: | Agaricomycetes |
| Order: | Agaricales |
| Family: | Strophariaceae |
| Genus: | Psilocybe |
| Species: | P. caerulescens var. caerulescens |
| Binomial name | |
| Psilocybe caerulescens Murrill |
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| Synonyms | |
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P. caerulescens var. albida, P. caerulescens var. mazatecorum, P. mazatecorum, P. caerulescens var. nigripes |
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| Psilocybe caerulescens | |
|---|---|
| Mycological characteristics | |
| gills on hymenium | |
| cap is convex | |
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hymenium is adnate or sinuate |
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| stipe is bare | |
| spore print is purple-brown | |
| ecology is saprotrophic | |
| edibility: psychoactive | |
Psilocybe caerulescens var. caerulescens, also known as Landslide mushroom, is a psilocybin mushroom having psilocybin and psilocin as main active compounds. Along with Psilocybe mexicana, it is one of the mushrooms likely to have been used by the Aztecs.
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The taste and smell of Psilocybe caerulescens var. caerulescens are strongly farinaceous, though the smell lessens with age or when dry.
The cap is (1)3–7(10) cm broad. Convex to obtusely campanulate with an incurved margin at first, rarely becoming plane, and often are umbonate or with a slight depression in the center. It is viscid when moist from a separable gelatinous pellicle. The margin is slightly translucent-striate when moist. The cap is hygrophanous, yellowish brown to reddish brown with a silvery-blue metallic luster, paler at the margin, and drying to a beige or straw yellow. It readily bruises blue when handled, the younger specimens bruising bluish olivacous or even blackish. The cap often has a great variation in color and form.
The gills are adnate to sinuate and close to subclose. They are whitish, yellowish grey when young, becoming dark violaceous brown to sepia brown with age; the edges remain slightly whitish.
Psilocybe caerulescens var. caerulescens spores are dark violaceous brown.
The stipe is (2)5–9(13) cm long and (5)8–10(12) mm thick. It is equal or enlarging slightly at the base, and is somewhat flexous, hollow, and subpruinose to floccose. The stipe is whitish to reddish brown or blackish and readily bruises blue. Rhizomorphs are sometimes attached to the base. The veil is well-developed but does not form a permanent annulus.
The spores are subrhomboid to subellipsoid and (6)6.7–8(8.5) x 4–6 µm. The basidia each produce four spores, and occasionally only two spores. The cheilocystidia are 15–22(25) x 4.5–6 µm and fusoid, with a flexuous neck that is 1–2.5 µm broad. Psilocybe caerulescens var. caerulescens lacks pleurocystidia.
Psilocybe caerulescens var. caerulescens is found growing gregariously or cespitosely, rarely solitarily, from June through September on disturbed or cultivated grounds often devoid of herbaceous plants. It often grows in sunny locations, preferring muddy orangish brown soils. Psilocybe caerulescens var. caerulescens was first reported from near Montgomery, Alabama, by Murrill in 1923 on sugarcane mulch, not re-documented from that locality since. It was recently found in South Carolina in September 2008. Psilocybe caerulescens is common and widespread throughout central regions of Mexico, also found in Venezuela and Brazil.
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