Psilocybe stuntzii Guzmán and Ott

 

Cap: 1.5-5 cm broad. Obtusely conic, expanding to convex-umbonate or flat with age. Margin is striate and translucent when moist. Hygrophanous. Dark chestnut brown while lighter towards the center. Olive-greenish at times, fading to a pale yellowish brown or pale yellow. Viscid when moist from a gelatinous pellicle. Gills: Adnate to adnexed, close to sub distant and moderately broad. Stem: 30 to 60 mm long x 2-4 mm thick. Enlarged at base. remnants of a veil remain and are usually bluish from natural injury when the cap opens. With a whitish pith. Staining blue to blue-green where injured. Spores: 9-12 x 55-8.3 x5-7.7m. Sporeprint: Dark purplish grayish brown. Habitat: Growing gregarious to subcespitose clusters and clumps in conifer wood chips and bark mulch (alder wood), in soils rich in woody debris, and in new lawns of freshly laid sod. Distribution: From North of San Francisco to Eugene, Oregon to British Columbia. This species is common in lawns and grassy areas such as parks, fields, or any newly mulch garden area throughout the western region of the Pacific Northwest. Season: From late July through September in lawns and grassy areas and from late September through December in mulched garden beds. Dosage: 20 to 30 fresh specimens, 1/3 fresh ounce or 1-3 dried grams. Comment: There was a time when this mushroom appeared in over 40 percent of all new lawns and mulched in areas in the Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest. Due to a disappearance of pastures south of Seattle in the Tukwilla-Kent-Auburn areas, this shroom now only appears sporadically in certain well fertilized and manicured new lawns. It is also very common in wood chips, preferably alder. I have observed this species growing all year long in the Seattle, Washington area. Dr. Jochen Gartz and I both observed an 50 pound patch in Eugene, Oregon in 1992. If there is a light winter, they will appear throughout the year. A related species Psilocybe fimetaria is very close macroscopically to Psilocybe stuntzii. This mushroom was also photographed growing out of gravel as can be seen in some images posted in the wood chip section of this species.

Psilocybe Stuntzii Gallery

Bluing in Psilocybe stuntzii
Lawn Varieties of Psilocybe stuntzii
Wood Chip and Beauty Bark Mulch Varieties of Psilocybe stuntzii
Psilocybe stuntzii var. tenuis (according to Bob Harrris)
Picked and/or Dried Specimens of Psilocybe stuntzii



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