Psyclobe Beaocystis?

LATIN NAME(S) Psilocybe baeocystis Singer & Smith
ENGLISH NAME(S) potent Psilocybe, baeos, knobby tops
NOTES most easily recognized by its whitish cap when dry, other features include hygrophanous olive-brown to buff-brown viscid striate cap, flesh that stains blue when cut, adnate to sinuate close gills that are grayish to dark cinnamon brown, becoming dark purplish gray with pallid edges, pallid to brownish stem which bruises or becomes blue-green, farinaceous odor and taste, growth on decaying conifer wood or woody material, and microscopic characters; Guzman says may be synonymous with aztecorum; common throughout PNW
CAP 1.5-5.5cm, conical with incurved margin, expanding to convex or (in extreme age) flat, margin distinctly wavy when convex; hygrophanous, olive- to buff-brown, (occasionally steel-blue), becoming copper brown in center when drying, fading to pallid white, bruising and aging greenish-blue about margin; sticky with usually separable pellicle, translucent striate
FLESH yellowish brown in cap, brownish orange in stem, staining blue when cut
GILLS adnate to sinuate, close, broad; grayish to dark cinnamon brown, becoming dark purplish-gray, with the edges pallid
STEM 5-7cm x 0.15-0.3cm, equal to somewhat equal, brittle, stuffed with loose fibers; pallid to brownish surface sometimes covered with small whitish fibrils, while often more yellowish toward top, bruising or becoming blue-green; distinct rhizomorphs around stem base
VEIL partial veil thinly cortinate becoming rapidly inconspicuous
ODOR weakly to strongly farinaceous
TASTE weakly to strongly farinaceous
EDIBILITY hallucinogenic, 0.15-0.85% psilocybin, up to 0.59% psilocin, up to 0.10% baeocystin, losing considerable potency from drying or in damage
HABITAT solitary to gregarious to somewhat tufted on decaying conifer mulch, in wood chips, decayed wood, decaying moss, lawns with high lignin content, seed cones of Douglas-fir, fall to early winter or rarely spring
SPORE DEPOSIT dark purplish
MICROSCOPIC spores 10-13 x 6.3-7 microns, elliptic, smooth, with pore at tip, cheilocystidia present 20-30(40) x 4.5-6(9) microns, wider in middle with narrow neck, pleurocystidia absent except near edge of gill
NAME ORIGIN name refers to comparatively shorter cheilocystidia (Greek baio means small)
SIMILAR to cyanescens but with less copious veil and more conical cap that is usually olive-brown when young, (Lincoff(2) says cyanescens has broad umbonate cap with wavy margin and baeocystis not wavy), like strictipes which has long brittle straight stem
SOURCES Lincoff(2)*, Stamets*, Guzman
FAMILY Strophariaceae of Order Agaricales

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