Psilocybe baeocystis

Singer & A.H. Sm.

Pronunciation
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T. Sage

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NeoSporen T. Sage T. Sage T. Sage Cyan-shaman

Pileus (Cap):
1.5-5.5 cm broad. Conic to obtusely conic to convex, expanding to plane only in extreme age. Margin incurved at first, and distinctly undulated when convex; translucent striate and often tinted greenish. Dark olive brown to buff brown (occasionally steel blue), becoming copper brown in the center when drying, hygrophanous, fading to pallid white and easily bruising bluish. Surface viscid when moist from a gelatinous pellicle, usually separable.

Lamellae (Gills):
Attachment adnate to sinuate, close. Colour grayish to dark cinnamon brown with the edges remaining pallid.

Stipe (Stem):
50-70 mm long by 2-3 mm thick. Equal to subequal. Pallid to brownish surface sometimes covered with fine whitish fibrils, while often more yellowish towards the apex. Brittle, stuffed with loose fibers. Distinct rhizomorphs present about stem base. Partial veil thinly cortinate, rapidly becoming inconspicuous.

Microscopic features:
Spores purplish brown in deposit, mango shaped, 10-12 by 6-7 um. Basidia 4-spored. Pleurocystidia absent. Cheilocystidia 20-40 by 4.5-9 um, fusoid with a narrow neck.

Season:
August through december, very rarely in the spring.

Habitat and Distribution:
Psilocybe baeocystis is a hemiboreal mushroom, common throughout the Pacific Northwest. It was found in Maine in November 2007 and is reported to have been found in Connecticut also.
Look in either well manured soil/mulch mix or grass that is old, but well kept. This species is much like P. stunzii in its habitat but likes to grow on the edge of the grass where the wood chips and grass meet. Peat moss is also a good place to look as well as under plants like rhododendrons and rose bushes in mulched garden beds.

Masscommons MO Occurrence Map

Growth Habit:
Solitary to gregarious to cespitose.

Bruising:
Bluing very heavily when disturbed, sometimes even from rain drops. Notice the heavy bluing all over in the cover photo for this species.

Dosage:

Lvl.1 0.8g
Lvl.2 1.3g
Lvl.3 2.4g
Lvl.4 3.6g
Lvl.5 5.0g

Other Notes:
Sometimes bluing all over turing the fruitbody completely a metallic blue color.
Concentration ranges for psychoactive compounds from these studies were reported to be 0.15%u20130.85% psilocybin, up to 0.59% psilocin, and up to 0.10% baeocystin.
1945 P. baeocystis is first collected in Eugene, Oregon

Similar Species:
Psilocybe quebecensis:
Psilocybe quebecensis is a moderately active hallucinogenic mushroom in the section Aztecorum, having psilocybin and psilocin as main active compounds. Native to Quebec, it is the most northern known psilocybin mushroom. Macroscopically this mushroom somewhat resembles Psilocybe baeocystis.

Cap is 1 - 3(3.5) cm in diameter. Nearly hemispheric to convex at first, becoming subcampanulate to more or less plane when mature, viscid and even to translucent-striate when moist, hygrophanous, brownish to straw colored, yellowish to milk white when dry. Surface smooth, may become finely wrinkled with age, flesh whitish. Readily stains blue-green where injured.
Gills are Adnate, thin, moderately broad to swollen in the middle. Grayish yellow with green tones becoming dark brown at maturity, with the edges remaining whitish.
Spore Print: Dark purplish brown.
Stipe is 2 - 3.5(4.5) cm long by 1 - 2(2.5) mm thick. Equal, slightly subbulbous, smooth to striate, brittle, tough, and fibrous, base is furnished with long conspicuous rhizomorphs. Yellowish or brownish towards the base, whitish when dry, partial veil cortinate, and soon disappearing, no annulus present, readily bruises blue.
Spores ellipsoid to subovoid in side and face view some spores mango shaped, 8.8 -11(16) x 6.6 - 7.7(8.8) um . Basidia 15 - 20(28) um 4-spored. Pleurocystidia present, 12 - 25(35) x (3)5 - 10(15) um, relatively polymorphic, often fusiform-ventricose or ampullaceous. Cheilocystidia (18)22 - 36 x 5.5- 8.8(10) um, fusoid-ampullaceous with an extended neck, 2 %u2014 3.3 um thick, abundant, forming a sterile band, sometimes with a hyaline viscous drop at the apex.
Solitary to gregarious, rarely cespitose, on rotting wood, particularly in the outwashes of streams in the decayed-wood substratum of alder, birch, fir and spruce in the late summer and fall. Reported from Quebec, Canada specifically in the Jacques-Cartier River Valley, fruiting at a temperature of 6C to 15C from summer to late October. Recently found in the United States (Michigan).

Links:
Psilocybe baeocystis -MushroomObserver
Psilocybe baeocystis -Gallery (NeoSporen) (0502-0493 & 0436-430)

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Compiled and Edited By: Joust