Psilocybe quebecensis

Taxobox
name = "Psilocybe quebecensis"


regnum = Fungi
divisio = Basidiomycota
classis = Agaricomycetes
ordo = Agaricales
familia = Strophariaceae
genus = "Psilocybe"
species = "P. quebecensis"
binomial = "Psilocybe quebecensis"
binomial_authority = mycomorphbox
name = Psilocybe quebecensis
whichGills = adnate
whichGills2 = sinuate
capShape = convex
capShape2=conical
hymeniumType=gills
stipeCharacter=bare
ecologicalType=saprotrophic
sporePrintColor=purple-brown
howEdible=psychoactive

"Psilocybe quebecensis" is a moderately active hallucinogenic mushroom in the section Aztecorum, having psilocybin psilocin as main active compounds. Native to the province of Quebec in Canada. This is the most northern known psilocybin mushroom. [http://www.springerlink.com/content/g1421g8p86155216/] Macroscopically this mushroom somewhat resembles "Psilocybe baeocystis".

Description

*Cap: 1-3(3.5) cm in diameter. Nearly hemispheric to convex at first, becoming subcampanulate to more or less plane when mature, viscid and even to translucent-striate when moist, hygrophanous, brownish to straw colored, yellowish to milk white when dry. Surface smooth, may become finely wrinkled with age, flesh whitish. Readily stains blue-green where injured.
*Gills: Adnate, thin, moderately broad to swollen in the middle. Grayish yellow with green tones becoming dark brown at maturity, with the edges remaining whitish.
*Spore Print: Dark purplish brown.
*Stipe: 2-3.5(4.5) cm long by 1-2(2.5) mm thick. Equal, slightly subbulbous, smooth to striate, brittle, tough, and fibrous, base is furnished with long conspicuous rhizomorphs. Yellowish or brownish towards the base, whitish when dry, partial veil cortinate, and soon disappearing, no ring present, readily bruises blue.
*Taste: Somewhat farinaceous
*Odor: Farinaceous
*Microscopic features: Spores ellipsoid to subovoid in side and face view some spores mango shaped, 8.8-11(16) x 6.6-7.7(8.8) µm. Basidia 15-20(28) 4-spored. Pleurocystidia present, 12-25(35) x (3)5-10(15) µm, very distinctive by their swollen apices, as in Psilocybe cubensis and Psilocybe cyanescens. Cheilocystidia (18)22-36 x 5.5-8.8(10) µm, fusoid-ampullaceous with an extended neck, 2-3.3 µm thick, abundant, forming a sterile band, sometimes with a hyaline viscous drop at the apex.

Habitat and formation

Scattered to gregarious on rotting wood, particularly in outwashes or streams, and in the decayed-wood substratum of alder, birch, fir and spruce in the late summer and fall. Reported from Quebec, specifically in the Jacques Cartier river valley, fruiting at a temperature of 6°C to 15°C from summer to late October.

External Links

* [http://bayimg.com/image/ealkhaabg.jpgPsilocybe quebecensis image]

References

*Ola'h, Gyorgy Miklos & Heim, R. 1967. Une nouvelle espèce nord-américaine de Psilocybe hallucinogène: "Psilocybe quebecensis". Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences 264: 1601-1604.

*Olah GM. The fine structure of Psilocybe quebecensis. Mycopathol Mycol Appl. 1973 Apr 30;49(4):321-38. PMID 4122667