What You Should Know
Psilocybe cubensis is a species of psychedelic mushroom whose principal active compounds are psilocybin and psilocin. It belongs to the fungus family Hymenogastraceae and was previously known as Stropharia cubensis. It is the most well-known psilocybin mushroom due to its wide distribution and ease of cultivation.
More than 180 psilocybin-containing mushrooms species are found all around the world. When eaten these can induce hallucinogenic/psychedelic effects. The key ingredient found in these mushrooms is psilocybin. Psilocybin is a so-called pro-drug which means that it is converted in the body to psilocin which is a chemical with psychoactive properties. Additional chemicals commonly present in minor amounts include psilocin itself, baeocystin and norbaeocystin although the extent to which these contribute to the overall effects is unclear.
Other names: Magic Mushrooms, Golden Halos, Cubes, Or Gold Caps.
Psilocybe cubensis Mushroom Identification
Cap
1.5-8 (10) cm broad, broadly conical or oval or bell-shaped (often with an umbo) when young, gradually expanding to convex, broadly umbonate, or plane; surface smooth or with small whitish veil remnants when young, viscid when moist, soon dry, color variable: whitish with a brown to yellowish center, or entirely yellow to yellowish-buff to yellow-brown, or sometimes cinnamon-brown when young and sometimes dingy olive in old age; bruising and aging bluish; margin sometimes hung with veil remnants.
Flesh
White, staining blue or blue-green when bruised.
Gills
Adnate to adnexed or seceding to free
Stipe
4-15 cm long, 0.4-1-5 cm thick, equal or more often thicker below, dry, white or sometimes yellowish to yellow-brown, aging or bruising blue or blue-green; smooth.
Veil
Membranous, white or bluish-stained, usually forming a thin, fragile, superior ring on a stalk which is blackened by falling spores.
Spores
11-17x7-12 microns, elliptical, smooth, thick-walled, with a large apical germ pore. Cystidia present on faces of gills, but chrysocystidia are absent.
Spore Print
Dark purple-brown to blackish.
Bruising
Blue or blue-green
Mycelium
Strong rhizomorphic white.
Psilocybe cubensis Natural Habitat
Psilocybe cubensis is a coprophilic fungus (a dung-loving species) that often colonizes the dung of large herbivores, most notably cows and other grazing mammals such as goats. It prefers humid grasslands and has been found in tropical and subtropical environments. In the US, it is sometimes found growing wild in the South, generally below the 35th parallel. It has been found in modern times in the highlands and river valleys of Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela in South America. It has also been found throughout Thailand, Cambodia, India, South Africa, and Australia.
Psilocybe cubensis can be found where humidity is above 85% a lot of the time, and where grass-eating mammals are. The reason cubensis grows commonly on the dung of these animals is because they have no or very little stomach acid. The cow eats feed with mushroom spores on it, and the spores germinate in the cow's moist, warm stomach.
No, cubensis is not found under cow patties, and you should not consume anything you find under cow pies. Cubensis can be found within a few hundred miles of the Gulf Coast reliably, especially in fall and spring, all the way from Galveston, TX to Miami, FL. as far north as middle Tennessee.
Psilocybe cubensis Legality
Psilocybin and psilocin are listed as Schedule I drugs under the United Nations 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances. However, mushrooms containing psilocybin and psilocin are not illegal in some parts of the world. For example, in Brazil they are legal, but extractions from the mushroom containing psilocybin and psilocin remain illegal.
In the United States, growing or possessing Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms is illegal in all states, but it is legal to possess and buy the spores for microscopy purposes. However, as of May 8, 2019 Denver, Colorado has decriminalized it for those 21 and up. On June 4, 2019, Oakland, California followed suit, decriminalizing psilocybin containing mushrooms as well as the Peyote cactus. On January 29, 2020, Santa Cruz, California decriminalized naturally-occurring psychedelics, including psilocybin mushrooms. On November 3, 2020, the state of Oregon decriminalized possession of psilocybin mushrooms for recreational use and granted licensed practitioners permission to administer psilocybin mushrooms to individuals age 21 years and older.
Psilocybe cubensis Cultivation
Personal-scale cultivation of Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms ranges from the relatively simple and small-scale PF Tek and other "cake" methods, that produce a limited amount of mushrooms, to advanced techniques utilizing methods of professional mushroom cultivators. These advanced methods require a greater investment of time, money, and knowledge, but reward the diligent cultivator with far larger and much more consistent harvests.
Full cultivation details you can find in this PDF.
Psilocybe cubensis Taxonomy and Etymology
The species was first described in 1906 as Stropharia cubensis by American mycologist Franklin Sumner Earle in Cuba. In 1907 it was identified as Naematoloma caerulescens in Tonkin (now northern Vietnam) by French pharmacist and mycologist Narcisse Théophile Patouillard, while in 1941 it was called Stropharia cyanescens by William Alphonso Murrill near Gainesville in Florida. German-born mycologist Rolf Singer moved the species into the genus Psilocybe in 1949, giving it the binomial name Psilocybe cubensis. The synonyms were later also assigned to the species Psilocybe cubensis.
The name Psilocybe is derived from the Ancient Greek roots psilos (ψιλος) and kubê (κυβη), and translates as "bare head". Cubensis means "coming from Cuba", and refers to the type locality published by Earle.
A common name in Thai is "Hed keequai", which translates as "mushroom which appears after water buffalo defecates".
Sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Alan Rockefeller (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International)
Photo 2 - Author: Dr. Brainfish (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic)
Photo 3 - Author: Myco-il (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International)
Photo 4 - Author: Ps0304.JPG: Zergboyderivative work: Ak ccm (Public Domain)
