Psilocybe eucalypta

Psilocybe eucalypta Guzmán & Watling


synonyms:
Psilocybe subaeruginosa Guzmán & Watling (1978)
Psilocybe australiana Guzmán & Watling (1978)
Psilocybe tasmaniana Guzmán & Watling (1978)

Macroscopic feat.:
  • Cap/Pileus: 1.5-3.8 cm broad. Convex, expanding to broadly convex to nearly plane, often with a central shallow umbo. Surface smooth to slightly translucent-striate near the margin, viscid when moist, reddish brown when young, becoming ochraceous, hygrophanous, fading in drying to dull straw colored. Flesh whitish, bruising bluish.
  • Gills/Lamellae: Attachment adnate, dull brown, soon becoming purplish brown, and eventually dark violaceous gray with whitish edges.
  • Stem/Stipe: 65-86 mm long by 2-2.5 mm thick. Covered with silky fibrils, equal to swollen at the base (4-5 mm thick) to which whitish rhizomorphs are attached. Partial veil cortinate, leaving a fugacious fibrillose annular zone in the upper regions.

Microscopic feat.:
  • Basidio/Spores: Spores purplish brown in deposit, subellipsoid, 9-13 by 5.5-6.6 µm.
  • Basidia: 4-spored.
  • Pleurocistidia: 17-30 by 5.5-7.7 µm, fusoid-ventricose to mucronate to sublageniform with short necks 2-3 µm thick.
  • Cheilocystidia: 15-25 by 4.4-6.6 µm, fusoid-ventricose to sublageniform, with elongated necks 4-5 µm long by 3-4 µm broad.

Habitat: Solitary to gregarious on soils rich in woody debris, often in grassy areas with Eucalyptus trees. Reported from New South Wales, eastern Australia.

Comment: Thought to be moderately active, but no analyses have yet been reported. Chang and Mills (1992) sought to show synonymy between Psilocybe australiana, Psilocybe eucalypta, Psilocybe subaeruginosa and Psilocybe tasmaniana, although, in the opinions of Guzmán, Bandal, and King (1993) and myself, they failed to conclusively prove their case. (See comments under Psilocybe subaeruginosa). Additionally, I find it difficult to accept their concept that, given the nature of close relatives in the genus Psilocybe, the same species can be both a coprophilic and lignicolous species. Hence, I am following Guzmán and treating these taxa as separate entities until further studies prove otherwise.

source - Paul Stamets "Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World"

Pictures at www.mushroomobserver.org

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