Psilocybe zapotecorum

Psilocybe zapotecorum Heim emend Guzmán


synonyms:
Psilocybe aggericola Singer & A.H. Sm.
Psilocybe barrerae Cifuentes & Guzmán
Psilocybe subzapotecorum Guzmán
Psilocybe chaconii Guzmán, M. Torres & Ram.-Guill.
Psilocybe bolivarii Guzmán, Ciencia (Méx.)
Psilocybe zapotecorum var. ramulosum
Psilocybe sanctorum
Psilocybe sanctorum Guzmán
Psilocybe candidipes Singer & A.H. Sm.
Psilocybe aggericola var. alvaradoi
Psilocybe zapotecorum f. elongata
Psilocybe pseudozapotecorum Guzmán
Psilocybe microcystidiata Guzmán & Bononi

Macroscopic feat.:
  • Cap/Pileus: 1-3 by 7 (11) cm, highly variable in form, conic to convex to subumbonate, and sometimes papillate and convoluted in age. Surface smooth, translucent-striate near the margin when moist. Reddish brown to organic brown, hygrophanous, fading to beige, orangish rose to straw in drying, quickly bruising blue to green to blackish where injured or in age.
  • Gills/Lamellae: Attachment sinuate or adnate, pale brown to violet brown to violet purple, with edges concolorous with gill face, or slightly paler.
  • Stem/Stipe: (40) 100-200 mm long by (3) 5-10 (12) mm thick, equal to slightly expanded at the base, sometimes with a pseudorhiza, at times flexuous or irregular in thickness. White to grayish to variably reddish brown or vinaceous, bluing when touched or injured, with blackish violet tones. Surface floccose above and strongly scabrous-strigose near the base.

Microscopic feat.:
  • Basidio/Spores: Purplish in deposit, violet brown in deposit, oblong-ellipsoid, (5.5) 6.6-7 (8.8) by 3.8-4.4 (5.5) µm.
  • Basidia: 4-spored.
  • Pleurocistidia: 20-38 by 5.5-14 µm, variable in form, fusoid-clavate, ventricose to submucronate, sometimes with irregularly divided apices.
  • Cheilocystidia: 13-27 by 3.5-6 µm, ventricose to fusoid, pyriform to lageniform, with an extended neck 1.5-2.2 µm.

Habitat: Cespitose to gregarious, rarely scattered, in swampy or muddy soils, in humus rich with leaves and wood debrs, in marshy deciduous forests, and in coffee plantations. Frequently found on the faces of ravines with exposed soils. Found in southern Mexico (600-1800 meters) and subtropical South America. (Collected in Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina.) Guzmán (1983) reported that this mushroom is sometimes found inside the mud houses of native peoples (Zapotecs), a curious if not spiritually prophetic phenomenon.

Comment: A potent and strongly bluing mushroom Psilocybe zapotecorum is comparatively large and can sometimes be covered with sand as it forces its way up through soils. From Brazilian specimens, Stijve and de Meijer (1993) found up to 0.30% psilocybin and 1% psilocin, which probably accounts for the strong bluing reaction. Not surprisingly, Heim and Hofmann (1958) found only 0.05% psilocybin and no psilocin in two-year-old specimens. One of the most curious species in the genus Psilocybe, this mushroom has a typically asymmetrical cap that is often convoluted in form. This mushroom is held in high esteem by native Mazatecs and Zapotecs. These two species have been confused frequently. The photographs labeled as Psilocybe caerulescens by Ott and Bigwood (1978) and as Psilocybe caerulescens-zapotecorum complex by Stamets (1978) are, in fact, Psilocybe zapotecorum. Heim and Callieux (1959) successfully fruited this species in Erlenmeyer flasks in sterilized, mixed compost after forty days of incubation (24-26°C).

source - Paul Stamets "Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World"

Pictures at www.mushroomobserver.org

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© psilosophy 2001-2024