Macroscopic feat.:

• Cap/Pileus: (5-) 10-20 mm diam. (in dry specimens), convex to subcampanulate, with a short conic papilla, smooth to sulcate-striate in dry, sometimes irregularly ondulate or plicate at the margin, brown reddish (7C7-8 or 9F6-8) or brown orangish (805-7), hygrophanous to beige brown (604-5) toward the margin, in dry specimens blackish brown (9F4-5 or more black), with the center blackish red (1008 or 10E8).
• Gills/Lamellae: Adnate or subadnate, thin, brown reddish violet (lOE4-5), with edges whitish and even.
• Stem/Stipe: 30-55 x 1-2 mm in dry specimens, with a long pseudorhiza up to 5 mm long, uniform or slightly thick toward the base before the pseudorhiza or subbulbose, brownish pale (4A3-4) to brown reddish (7C8) or blackish (10F4-6), bluing, with white mycelium covering the base, hollow, smooth, but surface fibrillose. Veil non in the adults.
• Context: Concolorous with pileus whitish below.
• Odor: Not checked, probably farinaceous.

Microscopic feat.:

• Basidio/Spores: (8.5-) 9.5-11 (-13) x (6-) 7-7.5 (-9) x 5.5-6.5 (-7) µm, compressed, in face-view oblong or subellipsoid, in frontal-view subrhomboid, thick-walled, brown yellowish with a conspicous germ pore. Spore print violet black.
• Basidia: (19-) 20-28 (-33) x (7-) 8-9.5 µm, 4-spored, hyaline, subcylindrical, with a median constriction.
• Pleurocistidia: (11-) 14-19 (-21.5) x 5-8 (-9) µm, hyaline, common, lageniform or broadly lageniform, with the neck short or up to 8 µm long.
• Cheilocystidia: (15-) 17-30 (-40) x (4-) 5-8 (-12) µm, hyaline, common, narrowly lageniform, frequently irregularly branched with two or three necks, up to 15 µm long.
• Subhymenium: Cellular, with hyaline and smooth to encrusted of brown yellowish pigment, 3-8 µm wide elements.
• Trama: Subregular, with hyaline, cylindrical to inflated hyphae, 3-30 µm wide, some of them encrusted by brown yellow pigment.
• Epicutis: An ixocutis 16-24 µm thick, with 1.5-5 µm wide, hyaline.
• Hypodermium: Subpellis (hypopileipellis) hyaline to encrusted of brown yellowish pigment, slightly cellular, with hyphae 2-4 µm wide and inflated elements 8-10.5 µm wide. Clamp connections common.

Habitat: Gregarious in soil, in grassland and gardens. Known only from Galicia, Spain, where it is common.

Studied material: SPAIN, La Coruña, Monfero, Caaveiro, 23 November 1997, J. Comesaña "C" (holotype XAL, isotype MA-Fungi 56866, LOU-Fungi 17969). Pontevedra, Vigo, 5 November 1999, J, Pérez (LOU-Fungi 17970; XAL); F. Valeiras "B" (LOU-Fungi 17968; XAL); Campus Universitario, As Lagoas-Marcosende, 6 October 2000, I. Otero & J.M Perdiz (LOU-Fungi 17967; 10 October 2001, J. Granda (LOU-Fungi 17972); 5 November 1999, F. Valeiras "A" (XAL); Nigrán, Chandebrito, 23-28 November 1997, J. Comesaña "B" (XAL); 5 November 1999, F Valeiras "A" (XAL); Gondomar, Pinzas, Donas, 9 November 2001, X. Bellón et al. (LOU-Fungi 17971); November 2000, A. Lorenzo-García 2 (XAL); Grove, October 2000, I. Seral-Bozal (XAL); Pontevedra, without locality, October 1998, J. Ott 98-002 (XAL).

Discussion: Psilocybe gallaeciae belongs to section Mexicanae Guzmán, following GUZMÁN (1983) for the form and size of their thick-walled spores, and its bluing basidioma. For the pseudorhiza it is closely related to Psilocybe galindii Guzmán (1983) from Mexico and Psilocybe antioquensis Guzmán et al. (1994) from Colombia, but those species have cheilocystidia 14-19 µm long and 15-20 µm long, respectively. Psilocybe mexicana R. Heim has neither pseudorhiza nor pleurocystidia, and it is known only from Mexico and Guatemala. This is the first record of a species of the section Mexicanae found in Europe. Their members are known from Mexico, U.S.A. (Florida), Colombia, Brazil and Thailand (Guzmán, 1995). The local Galician people use Psilocybe gallaeciae recreationally for its hallucinogenic properties. Psilocybe serbica reported by Freire et al. (1994) from Galicia, without any description, probably is Psilocybe gallaeciae. Psilocybe serbica belongs to section Semilanceatae and it is known only from central Europa (Guzmán, 1983).

source - Boletim da Sociedade Micológica de Madrid [27 (2003) 185-186]

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