Psilocybe mexicana
Encyclopedia
Psilocybe mexicana is a psychedelic mushroom
Psychedelic mushroom
Psilocybin mushrooms are fungi that contain the psychoactive compounds psilocybin and psilocin. There are multiple colloquial terms for psilocybin mushrooms, the most common being shrooms or magic mushrooms....

. It is from this species that Dr. Albert Hofmann
Albert Hofmann
Albert Hofmann was a Swiss scientist known best for being the first person to synthesize, ingest and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide . He authored more than 100 scientific articles and a number of books, including LSD: My Problem Child...

 first isolated and named the active compounds, psilocybin
Psilocybin
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic prodrug, with mind-altering effects similar to those of LSD and mescaline, after it is converted to psilocin. The effects can include altered thinking processes, perceptual distortions, an altered sense of time, and spiritual experiences, as well as...

 and psilocin
Psilocin
Psilocin , an aromatic compound, sometimes also spelled psilocine, psilocyn, or psilotsin, is a psychedelic mushroom alkaloid. It is found in most psychedelic mushrooms together with its phosphorylated counterpart psilocybin...

 in 1958. It was first used by the early natives of Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

 and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 over 2,000 years ago, known to the
Aztecs as teonanacatl ("flesh of the gods").

It is in the section Mexicanae. Other mushrooms in this section include Psilocybe acutipilia, Psilocybe antioquensis, Psilocybe armandii
Psilocybe armandii
Psilocybe armandii is a species of mushroom in the Strophariaceae family....

, Psilocybe atlantis
Psilocybe atlantis
Psilocybe atlantis is a rare psychedelic mushroom which contains psilocybin and psilocin as main active compounds. It is a close relative of Psilocybe mexicana and has been recorded only from Georgia. It has a pleasant taste and smell.-Description:...

, Psilocybe galindoi
Psilocybe galindoi
Psilocybe galindoi is a psychedelic mushroom in the section Mexicana, having psilocybin and psilocin as its main active compounds. It is also known as P. galindii, the mushroom was named in honor of Mr. Carlos Galindo Arias and his family by Dr...

, Psilocybe makarorae
Psilocybe makarorae
Psilocybe makarorae is a species of mushroom in the Strophariaceae family. The mushroom contains the medicinal compound psilocybin....

, Psilocybe pericystis
Psilocybe pericystis
Psilocybe pericystis is a species of mushroom in the Strophariaceae family....

, Psilocybe samuiensis
Psilocybe samuiensis
Psilocybe samuiensis is a psychedelic mushroom, which has psilocybin and psilocin as main active compounds. It was placed in the Section Mexicanae of genus Psilocybe by Gastón Guzmán due to its rhomboid-shaped spores...

, Psilocybe subacutipilea
Psilocybe subacutipilea
Psilocybe subacutipilea is a species of mushroom in the Strophariaceae family. The mushroom contains the medicinal compound psilocybin and is found in Colombia....

, and Psilocybe tampanensis
Psilocybe tampanensis
Psilocybe tampanensis is a very rare psychedelic mushroom whose only known natural specimen was collected in the wild by Steven Pollock, near Tampa, Florida in 1977. All spores and cultivations of this species nowadays are originated from this only specimen...

.

Description

  • Cap: (0.5)1 — 2(3) cm in diameter, conic to campanulate or subumbonate and often with a slight papilla, hygrophanous
    Hygrophanous
    The adjective hygrophanous refers to the color change of mushroom tissue as it loses or absorbs water, which causes the pileipellis to become more transparent when wet and opaque when dry....

     or glabrescent, even to striate at the margin, ocherous to brown or beige to straw color in age, sometimes with blueish or greenish tones, easily turning blue when injured.
  • Gills: Adnate or adnexed, gray to purple-brown with whitish edges.
  • Spore Print: Dark purple-brown
  • Stipe: 4 — 10(12.5) cm tall x 1 — 2(3) mm thick, equal, hollow, straw color to brownish or reddish-brown, becoming darker where injured, annulus
    Annulus (mycology)
    An annulus is the ring like structure sometimes found on the stipe of some species of mushrooms. The annulus represents the remaining part of the partial veil, after it has ruptured to expose the gills or other spore-producing surface. An annulus may be thick and membranous, or it may be cobweb-like...

     absent.
  • Odor: Farinaceous
  • Taste: Farinaceous
  • Microscopic features: Spores 8 — 12 x 5 — 8 µm. Ovoid and smooth.


Like some other grassland species such as Psilocybe semilanceata
Psilocybe semilanceata
Psilocybe semilanceata, commonly known as the liberty cap, is a psychedelic mushroom that contains the psychoactive compounds psilocybin and baeocystin. Of the world's psychoactive mushrooms, it is the most common in nature, and one of the most potent...

, Psilocybe tampanensis
Psilocybe tampanensis
Psilocybe tampanensis is a very rare psychedelic mushroom whose only known natural specimen was collected in the wild by Steven Pollock, near Tampa, Florida in 1977. All spores and cultivations of this species nowadays are originated from this only specimen...

, and Conocybe cyanopus
Conocybe cyanopus
Conocybe cyanopus is a member of the genus Conocybe which contains the medicinal compound psilocybin. It is formerly known as Pholiotina cyanopoda, Conocybe cyanopoda, and Galerula cyanopus.-Description:...

, Psilocybe mexicana may form sclerotia, a dormant form of the organism, which affords it some protection from wildfires and other natural disasters.

Distribution and habitat

Psilocybe mexicana Solitary or in small groups among moss
Moss
Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...

 along roadsides and trails, humid meadows or cornfields, in particular in the grassy areas bordering deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...

 forests, and limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 regions. Common at elevations between 1000–1800 feet, rare in lower elevations, known only from Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 and Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

. Fruiting takes place from May to October.

Consumption and cultivation

Like several other psychedelic mushrooms in the same genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

, P. mexicana has been consumed by indigenous North American and Central American peoples for its entheogen
Entheogen
An entheogen , in the strict sense, is a psychoactive substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context. Historically, entheogens were mostly derived from plant sources and have been used in a variety of traditional religious contexts...

ic effects. In the Nahuatl language, the fungus is known as Teonanácatl—agglutinative form of the words teó(ti) ("god") and nanácatl ("mushroom")—"god-mushroom."

In the western world, usually the sclerotia of p. mexicana ('Mexicana A' strain) are cultivated for psychedelic use. The sclerotia have a lower content of active substances than the actual mushrooms themselves. These are traded under the pseudonym truffles.
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