Hello everyone, I bring you great mycological news of the new mellenia.
Another new species of Psilocybe has been discovered and recorder for all history.
Observations on some known species oif Psilocybe from Spain and a description of a new species.
A list of the 15 known species of Psilocybe from Spain was presented for publication int he Bolitin of the Micologicical Society of Madrid by Gast?n Guzm?n and M. L. Castro.
This new species is now known as Psilocybe gallaeciae Guzm?n and Castro, sp. nov.
Also new reports of P. semilanceata from Galicia is also reported. Previously P. semilanceata was known only from the Pyrenees region where it is common and in the central part of Spain where it is known to be rare/
Furthermore, Psilocybe hispanica, as also reported from a new locality in the Pyrenees refion of Aragon, where it is very common.
Both P. semilanceata and P. hispanica are used as ludible recreational hallucinogenic fungi in the Pyrenees and Galicia. Information on the local use of t both of these latter two fungi in practives of witchcraft in the Pyrenees in the Middle Ages is also discussed.
Other species also reported included P. cyanescens which is reported but not yet confirmed.
P. liniformans is also common as is P. strictipes.
The other Psilocybes examined in this study are non-psychoactive species such as P. montana, P. coprophila, P. muscorum and P. mederia, etc..
Psilocybe galliciae belongs to section Mexicanae Guzm?n based on the form and thick-walled spores and its bluing phenomena. This is the firt record for a species of the section MExicanae found in Europe.
Their members are known of from Mexico, U.S.A. (Florida), Colombia, Brazil and Thailand (Psilocybe samuiensis Guzm?n, Bandala and Allen.
The local people in Galicia use Psilocybe gallaecicae recretionally for their hallucinogenic properties.
Psilocybe serbica allegedly found in Galicia, and also reported in this study without any description were probably, P. gallaeciae.
From the 15 species P. semilanceata, P. hispanica and P. gallaeciae, P. strictipes and P. liniformans have hallucinogenic properties.
It is intersting to note that in the Pyrenees of Arogon, a medal was found in the Valle de Tena dating from the XXVII Century with a devil and some toadstools carved on the medallion. The toadstoopols may be l related to P. hispanica or P. semilanceata, in relationship to the practive of witchcraft, very common in the valley during the middle ages.
Some specimens of the species in this study were collected by Ethnobotanist Jonathan Ott.
A brief description of this species.
Cap: (5-) 10-20 mm diam (in dry specimens, convex to campanulate, with a short conic papilla, smooth to sulcate-striate in dry, sometimes irregularly ondulate or plicate at the margin. brown-reddish or brown toward the margin, in dry specimens blackish-brown with white edges.
Stem: 30-55 x 1.2 mm in dry specimens, with a long pseudorhiza up to 5 mm long, uniform or slightly thick at the base.. Bluing with white mycelium covering the base. Hollow, smooth but surface fibrillose. Odor probably farinaceous.
Spore print: violet-black.
Habitat and Distribution: Gregarious in soil, in greassland and gardens. Known only from Galicia, Spain where it is common.
MJ
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