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xthrx said:
I know this probably wont help any of you, but maybe it will. These are Auckland, New Zealand habitat shots.

First is Psilocybe aucklandii habitat shot, its strange how many subs you guys find in forests opposed to landscaping chip, subs in the forest in nz are very rare but possible in small numbers.

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It is strange, seems like the rest of the country gets more in their woodchips, I have seen one patch in a public woodchipped area but that was it. I like it that way personally, I'd rather be searching for mushrooms out in the open air of the countryside, than wandering through the concreted manufactured habitat we have built (though that too has its pleasures). There's probably an environmental reason for way things are in SA. Now excuse me while i go and wipe the drool of jealousy from my keyboard , damn your sexy photos!

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maynardjameskeenan said:
I don't think this is your pictures because I have seen this exact same one before.

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lord of the gnomes said:
to begin with i suggest highly that you get familiar with what mushroom you are specifically looking for, here you are looking for Psilocybe subaeruginosa. some good advice would be to read through past season threads as they are a gold mine of info even for edible and poisonous lookalikes such as Galerina marginata.

get to know what time of year they fruit and which areas to be searching. the time of year that's best to start searching is late may-early june and can run through till late august/september depending on the weather conditions.
areas you should be hunting are the Adelaide Hills/MT Lofty Ranges and pine plantations. within these areas there are many places to go searching so here are some of my own habitat shots...

disturbed urban mulched/woodchipped garden beds


Eucualypt radiated areas in leaves and bark amongst grass and grassy fields and hill sides also among bracken ferns


amongst Pinus radiata tree's or radiated areas such as pine forests in pine needles and grass and bracken ferns


Also often solitaire or in patches along roads and walking trails like this


types of landscape habitat you should be looking for



GOOD IDENTIFICATION TECHNIQUES
.Smell (does it smell mushroomey, does it smell like chemicals?)
.Spore print (Psilocybe prints should be a dark purple black)
.Bruising (Psilocybes will all bruise blue)
.Substrate (what it was growing from)
.stipe (is it woody, soft, brittle, small, big etc)
.Pileus
.Gill color
any you are unsure about either throw them out or post them up on shroomery and let someone identify them for you.
never eat an unidentified mushroom

WHY SHOULD PSILOCYBES BRUISE BLUE?
Psilocybe mushrooms contain both Psilocybin and Psilocin a natural occurring psychedelic. the blue bruising is a reaction of the alkaloids called oxidization where the O-phosphoryl-4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine will turn blue when damaged. if your mushroom does not show any signs of bruising then DO NOT EAT IT. some Subs when found in the wild will not show any signs of bruising and it may not until hours later when you get home.

shown here for comparison this mushroom bares no bruising

and this one with bruising

slightly evident at the bottom of the stipe where it has been cut and some around the edge of the pileus you may also notice there is some purple black veil remnants atop the stipe and beneath the pileus, it is the black color due to the spores that have dropped on to it.
if you have handled your fungi in a rough manner and it bruises black that is a sign you have potentially oxidized all the Psilocybin and left the fungi virtually useless

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF ONE SUCH OCCURRENCE OF EXTREME OXIDIZATION


EXAMPLES OF MOSS INHIBITING PSILOCYBE SUBAERUGINOSA

Great care should be taken when harvesting Subaeruginosa from moss as Galerina sp also grow directly from moss

COMPARISON OF GALERINA VS SUBAERUGINOSA

notice the brown stem and annulus on the Galerina to the left (NOTE not all Galerina have the annulus around the stipe)

notice the caps are very similar

This small patch was found just inches from a patch of Subs

COMPARISON OF IMPOSTERS/LOOKALIKES VS SUBAERUGINOSA

The one to the right in both photos is the Sub

HYGROPHANUS PILEUS
Psilocybes among other hallucinogenic species and fungi have Hygrophanus caps which refers to color change as they dry out or absorb moisture, here are some examples of this


SPORE PRINTS
your Psilocybe subaeruginosa prints should look like these

if any of your prints come out rusty brown ditch the fungi

REMEMBER TO ALWAYS PINCH THEN AT THE BASE OR USE SCISSORS AND LEAVE THE PINS TO DEVELOP AND DROP SPORES

here are some links that im sure you would most welcome
Proper Picking Technique (For You Noobs)
Spore Spreading
Uncle Gnomes's old timey "magic honey"
Habitat Shots/Photos. Australia.
although this is Australia wide there are some good habitat shots from SA so is still most definitely worth a read (credit to NOXADVANCED)
(more TEKs to come as i write them so i will also add them when written )

thanks for reading and i hope you guys learn/enjoy reading this thread happy hunting and stay safe
as always feedback and comments are welcome but please DO NOT POST PICTURES HERE ASKING FOR AN ID, THIS IS NOT AN ID THREAD

peace
Gnomes

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NoxADVANCED said:

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maynardjameskeenan said:
I don't think this is your pictures because I have seen this exact same one before.

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Agreed.

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