Gymnopilus viridans

Gymnopilus viridans
Mycological characteristics
	gills on hymenium
	cap is convex
	hymenium is adnexed or adnate
	spore print is yellow-orange
	ecology is saprotrophic
	edibility: psychoactive

Gymnopilus viridans is a rarely documented mushroom. It contains the hallucinogens psilocybin and psilocin. The last known collection is from Washington, United States (1912).

Description

• Pileus: — 8 cm, thick, convex with a large umbo, ochraceous, dry, with conspicuous light reddish brown scales that are sparse but become denser toward the center; flesh firm, becoming green-spotted where handled.
• Gills: Adnate, broad, crowded, edges undulate, dingy brown to rusty brown with age.
• Spore Print: Rusty brown.
• Stipe: — 6 cm x 2 cm thick, enlarging below, solid, firm, colored like the cap,
• Microscopic features: Spores (6)7 x 8.5 x (3.5)4 — 5 µm ellipsoid, not dextrinoid, minutely verruculose, obliquely pointed at one end, no germ pore. Pleurocystidia absent, Cheilocystidia 20 — 26 x 5 — 7 µm, caulocystidia 35 — 43 x 4 — 7 µm, clamp connections present.

Habitat and formation

Gymnopilus viridans is found growing cespitose on coniferous wood from June to November.

References

• Murrill, William (1912). "Gymnopilus viridans". Mycologia 4: 257.  ("For the benefit of those using Saccardo's nomenclature, the following new species in the above article are recombined, as follows: Gymnopilus viridans = Fammula viridans" p. 262)
• Hesler, Mycologia Memoir No. 3 1969, North American Species of Gymnopilus