Greetings all, I?ve never posted here before so firstly a bit of feedback? Congratulations on a *fantastic* site/ set of forums. Takes me back to the good old days of my youth when a bunch of us used to hunt up P.aurig?s in the pine-forests on the outskirts of the ACT? Yep very informative site indeed, I love all the fungi pics, magic and otherwise, and the comments about chemical conversions etc (obviously posted by peeps with quite extensive knowledge in chemistry!). I?m also impressed with how responsible the advice supplied here re psychedelics is? ?Gung-ho amateurs? are quickly warned that they have the wrong attitude, which is important, and has probably led to a great many bad trips being avoided!
I have recently acquired a real interest in fungi, partly due to this site? did 6 months of botany at uni as part of a BSc, but they didn?t really go much into fungi that much in terms of particular species? I also finally got a digital camera that has ?macro? function, so I?ve been able to snap a few shrooms from my local park here in Melbourne (Australia). I?d be interested in guesses on species if anyone in the know wants to have a geeze at the pics attached? None are magic (possible exception #7a/ 7b{{*Subsequent edit; 7a and 7b are subs}}), I?m now kinda interested in ALL fungi, thought I?d try and take a short-cut re ID?ing some of the local shrooms, by posting a few pics here and seeing if anyone chimes in with ?oh that?s definitely (xyz)? etc? I will be tracking down more net ref?s/ comparing pictures etc (anyone know of a good ?phylogenetic tree? re shroom genus/ species on the web btw?) with the ones I see around, but any guesses at species would be appreciated (I understand they can only be guesses given a couple of specimens in a digital photo !)?
I also have a few questions about magic shrooms that I?m sure you guys can answer informatively. Hope they?re not too tedious/ someone can be bothered reading them!
1st, what is the truth of the matter re the common adage (wives tale?) ?1 tiny wee shroom is as potent as that same shroom when it grows big??? I suspect this is rubbish, because in Indonesia my guide whizzed of into the valley occasionally and came back with about 50 TINY shrooms (very fat stalks orangy/ gold tops, edge of cap still attached to stalk, looked like a little gold ball on a fat white stalk) which we would slowly consume? all up probably only 5 to 8g each, but a heap of mushies in total, cause they were tiny? had great experiences, nothing too heavy at all. On the other hand, in Thailand a lot of the shrooms we?d find growing up around the hotel where pretty big (2-3 inch) and 5 or 7 of those suckers was quite sufficient, and probably weighed in at about 5 ? 8g or so. Now these where a different species (a very ?white? shroom before picking, the blue bruising reaction thus v. striking, cap pulls away from stalk and flattens quickly/ early in fruiting stage), so maybe it?s not a fair comparison. That said the subs? we used to hunt in the ACT (Australia) also seemed to me fairly reliable re potency if you gaged it by approximate weight, not the number of actual mushies.
So I?ve never had much faith in that adage about a mushy being ?born? with all the potency it will ever have? thus I suspect weight can be a fairly reliable measure... Any thoughts appreciated?
2nd, In the ACT (Australia) we used to camp over night at the spot, gather up shrooms (subbies) while having a BBQ etc, break off the caps of some of the older flat ones and lay them out nearish the fire? and of the night we would cut them up and sprinkle them around up and down the valley? was this wise, or a waste of mushies ? I guess my real question is would the accelerated drying have destroyed the spores (shrooms were probably dried at around 45-50 degrees or so, under ?DNA melting? temp), and would it have been better to cut them up and spread them around fresh (ie when and where we found them) in our efforts to ensure future happy trails?? One other fella I?ve hunted with in ACT used to lob the bigger more mature mushies into a pretty loosely woven (roughly 3mm holes) bag, that he sort of swung around a bit as he searched? his theory was that while he was taking a fair few shrooms (possibly to the disappointment of others searching the area the next day), he was also spreading spores around, thus actually doing the shroomers a favour? I wondered if a wet mushy would actually RELEASE many spores at all, but didn?t have the heart to question him strongly on the issue? Another mate used to take a much simpler approach, before picking any mushie he would give it about 5 hard flicks to the top of the cap, his theory being that that would at least liberate a few spores from the cap, and these could ?help for next year??
As it happened whenever they were ?on? they were well and truly on, but I?ve always wondered to what extent that was cause we used to often sprinkle mushies around the place/ the string-bag method/ the cap flicking method, and to what extent it was natural (ie woulda happened anyway).
Any thoughts appreciated.
3rd, is the ?blue bruising reaction? an absolute indicator of the presence of the actual chemicals psilocin (forgive me the spelling chemists) or psilocybin ? What I mean is is one of those chemicals actually involved in the ?blue? colour change chemical reaction. Pictures 7a and 7b are shrooms from aforementioned park in Victoria (Australia). They resemble but do not seem to be the same species as the subs we used to find in the ACT (Australia). I might be being tricked because of the size of the shrooms (they?re all small/ early, the clusters in the pics stand about 3cm high), but my ?gut reaction? (no pun intended, I haven?t eaten any!) is that they are not subs, but this brings me back to the blue bruising reaction? the shrooms in pics #7a and 7b definitely bruise blue, though the cam did not capture this colour very well? off-right of shroom in pic #7b I?ve sprayed a colour using photo-shop or sommat that seems to come up on the screen the same actual colour as the reaction/ real life. I am also seeing the very thin line of almost black looking colouration at the very edge/ perimeter of the cap, that I remember fondly as a reliable indicator in the ACT subs.
Again, my main question here is whether the chemicals psilocin or psilocybin are REQUIRED for this blue-bruising effect, and if so are any non-psycho-active anologues of these chemicals known in fungi, that can still elicit the blue-bruising?
Any thoughts appreciated.
4th, any guesses on species re the shrooms in pics 7a and 7b ? They appear to have sprung up based on a bit of moisture followed by heat, but not got enough subsequent rain to keep growing (Melbourne still too dry !!); they were kind of drying out, even though they were just juveniles? I bagged less than 10% of what was there roots and all, for photographic purposes? they definitely bruise blue? hard to tell with no ?adults? around?
Any thoughts appreciated.
5th, relates to an earlier question about spores, what are the chances of getting any spores from a young (yet naturally dry) shroom ? My real question here is can/ do some mushies produce spores when triggered by an environmental cue NO MATTER HOW OLD / BIG/ MATURE the fruiting body is, or should I expect no spores to come of young/ stunted fruiting caps, no matter how carefully I dry them??
Any thoughts appreciated.
Hmm a large post, wonder if it will work? wonder how easy it is to upload pics? if I cannae upload them all at once I?ll get them all up over the next day or 3?
eagerly awaiting any thoughts,
SubOriginal
PS looks like upload limits may foil my plans, I'll post pics day by day as allowed... Melbourne Victoria Australia (many pics, subs/ spores etc)
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suboriginal 
Merkin 
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note that a wild print will have plenty of contaminations so you'll either have to work from agar to colonise them or else just distribute the spores somewhere and hope they will grow from that. even easier, take a little prespawned mycelium from the spot you picked them, and transport it somewhere else.
veritas_VIC_AU
madnsneaky
jumpman
Mothershabooboo