Psilocybe zapotecorum

Psilocybe zapotecorum is a psilocybin mushroom which has psilocybin and psilocin as main active compounds.

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Description

• Cap: 2-13 cm, conical to convex very rarely expanding to plane in age, margin wavy sometimes with an acute papilla or mamilla, usually umbonate or with a depressed center. In young specimens the margin has a scalloped edge which sometimes curls upwards as the mushroom matures. The cap is yellowish brown to tan, fading to cream-yellow then brown and finally black in age. The flesh is white but soon changes to a cyan blue, then quickly to black.
• Gills: Cream color when young, violet brown in age, with an attachment that is sinuate or adnate, sometimes subdecurrent.
• Spores: Dark violet brown, oblong to ellipsoid to subrhomboid, thin walled, 7 x 4 um.
• Stipe: Central, flexuous, cylindric or slightly flattened, hollow, from 3cm to 26cm long, 0.5 to 1 cm thick. White to grey, turning yellowish, blue and black in age. The entire stem is covered with many white scales which more pronounced in the lower part of the stem. Partial veil is white and arachnoid, disappearing in age. Often a long pseudorrhiza can be found attached the base of the stem. Strongly bruising blue then black where damaged.
• Taste: Farinaceous and very slightly like radish or spice.
• Odor: Farinaceous.and slightly sweet.
• Microscopic features:

Distribution and habitat

Grows solitary or gregariously in groups, sometimes in cespitose clusters of almost a hundred mushrooms, terrestrial, growing directly from soils rich in organic matter. Found near rivers, creaks and ravines, sometimes growing directly from steep mossy ravine walls. Found in humid and shadowed places in mesophytic forests, oak and pine forests, or cloud forests.

Often found in subtropical forests containing Alnus sp., Magnolia sp., Fraxinus sp., Quercus sp., large pines and blackberry bushes.

Known to occur in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.