grim singmuf

Psilocybe azurescens From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search 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 range map 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. It belongs to the family Strophariaceae in the order Agaricales.

Contents  [hide] 

• 1 Appearance
• 2 Habitat and distribution
• 3 Legal status
• 4 Effects
• 5 See also
• 6 References
• 7 External links

[edit] 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 info-black where injured, close, with two tiers of lamellulae, mottled, edges withish. 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.

[edit] Habitat and distribution

Cespitose to gregarious on deciduous wood-chips and/or in sandy soils rich in lignicolous debris. The mushroom has an affinity for coastal dune grasses.^[2] Aspect collyboid, generating an extensive, dense and tenacious mycelial mat, Psilocybe azurescens causes the whitening of wood. Fruitings begin in late September and continue until “late December and early January.”^[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 Tillamook, Oregon, and as far north as Grays Harbor County, Washington. It is primarily clustered around the Columbia River Delta, with the first type collections being made in Hammond, Oregon, near Astoria. It is also quite prevalent north of the Columbia River in Washington, from Long Beach north to Westport. 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. Fort Stevens State Park, near Hammond, Oregon, has a very large population near the south jetty and the park features many programs during the mushroom season of interest to potential azurescens hunters.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Effects

See Psilocybin: Effects.

Name Psilocybin [mg/g] Psilocin [mg/g] Baeocystin [mg/g] Total [mg/g] Alkaloid Concentration of Dried Psilocybin Mushrooms^[4]Psilocybe azurescens 1.78 0.38 0.35 2.51 Psilocybe cubensis 0.63 0.60 0.025 1.26 [edit] See also

• Psilocybin mushrooms
• List of Psilocybin mushrooms

[edit] References

1. ^ Paul Stamets, A Comparison of Combined Maxima of Psilocybin, Psilocin and Baeocystin in Eleven Species of Psilocybe Fungi Perfect
2. ^ ^{a b} Stamets, Paul (1996). Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 0-9610798-0-0.  p. 95.
3. ^ ^{a b} A Worldwide Geographic Distribution of the Neurotropic Fungi
4. ^ Approximate Alkaloid Content of selected Psilocybe mushrooms (www.erowid.org)