Psilocybe azurescens

Psilocybe azurescens
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Basidiomycota
Class:	Agaricomycetes
Order:	Agaricales
Family:	Strophariaceae
Genus:	Psilocybe
Species:	P. azurescens
Binomial name
Psilocybe azurescens Stamets & Gartz

Psilocybe azurescens
Mycological characteristics
	gills on hymenium
	cap is convex or umbonate
	hymenium is adnate or sinuate
	stipe is bare
	spore print is blackish-brown to purple
	ecology is saprotrophic
	edibility: psychoactive

Psilocybe azurescens is a psychedelic mushroom whose main active compounds are psilocybin and psilocin. It is among the most potent^[1] of the tryptamine-bearing mushrooms, containing up to 1.8% psilocybin, 0.5% psilocin, and 0.4% baeocystin by dry weight, averaging to about 1.1% psilocybin and 0.15% psilocin, makes it one of the strongest mushrooms in psilocybe genus. It belongs to the family Strophariaceae in the order Agaricales. In one study Psilocybe subaeruginosa (Cleland) collected in Victoria, Australia had up to 1.93% PSOP. Perkal 1981, which would indicate that Psilocybe subaeruginosa could be even more potent than its close cousin depending on where it is collected and the strain.

Appearance

The cap (pileus) of Psilocybe azurescens is 30–100 mm in diameter, conic to convex, expanding to broadly convex and eventually flattening with age with a pronounced, persistent broad umbo; surface smooth, viscous when moist, covered by a separable gelatinous pellicle; chestnut to ochraceous brown to caramel in color often becoming pitted with dark blue or bluish black zones, hygrophanous, fading to light straw color in drying, strongly bruising blue when damaged; margin even, sometimes irregular and eroded at maturity, slightly incurved at first, soon decurved, flattening with maturity, translucent striate and often leaving a fibrillose annular zone in the upper regions of the stipe. Lamellae ascending, sinuate to adnate, brown, often stained into-black where injured, close, with two tiers of lamellulae, mottled, edges whitish. Spore-print dark purplish brown to purplish black in mass. Stipe 90–200 mm long by 3–6 mm thick, silky white, dingy brown from the base or in age, hollow at maturity. Composed of twisted, cartilaginous tissue. Base of stipe thickening downwards, often curved, and characterized by coarse white aerial tufts of mycelium, often with azure tones. Mycelium surrounding stipe base densely rhizomorphic (i.e., root-like), silky white, tenaciously holding the wood-chips together, strongly bruising bluish upon disturbance. They have no odor to slightly farinaceous. Their taste is extremely bitter.

Habitat and distribution

The habit ranges from caespitose (growing in tight, separated clusters) to gregarious on deciduous wood-chips and/or in sandy soils rich in lignicolous (woody) debris. The mushroom has an affinity for coastal dune grasses.^[2] In aspect it generates an extensive, dense and tenacious mycelial mat (collyboid); Psilocybe azurescens causes the whitening of wood. Fruitings begin in late September and continue until "late December and early January," according to the mycologist Paul Stamets.^[2]

Psilocybe azurescens has been cultivated in Germany,^[3] New Zealand and the United States (California, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania.).^[3]

This species occurs naturally in coastal dune grasses only along a small area of the West Coast of the United States. It has been regularly found as far south as Depoe Bay, Oregon, and as far north as Grays Harbor County, Washington. Its primary locations are clustered around the Columbia River Delta: the first type collections were made in Hammond, Oregon, near Astoria. It is also quite prevalent north of the Columbia River in Washington, from Long Beach north to Westport. Some feral specimens have also been reported in Stuttgart, Germany. While infrequent, they can sometimes be found around decaying wood in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Cape Disappointment State Park, near Ilwaco, Washington, has a large population, but harvesting is a potential felony that is enforced by local law enforcement agencies.

Legal status

Possession and/or cultivation of this species is illegal in a number of countries including the United States, and it is considered a Class A Drug in New Zealand.

Effects

See also

• List of Psilocybin mushrooms
• Psilocybin mushrooms

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Psilocybe azurescens.

• Psilocybe azurescens on Google Images
• Psilocybe azurescens taxonomy paper
• Psilocybe azurescens cultivation
• Psilocybe azurescens Images