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Psilocybe
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Psilocybe
Notes
Spore print purple-brown to black. Small to medium-sized mushrooms, the cap dull brownish or yellowish typically slightly tacky when fresh. Gills attached, stalk central, no ring (at least in the New Zealand species). Saprobic, on soil, on dung, on wood in native forests, in urban areas on wood chip mulches.
There are at least 8 species in New Zealand, at least 2 of which are indigenous.
Some species of
Psilocybe
turn blue with damage, and these contain the hallucinogenic compound psilocybin.
Psilocybe
can be difficult to distinguish from other small, brown mushrooms in genera such as
Galerina
and
Inocybe
, both of which include poisonous species.
Stropharia
, often found in similar situations, is more brightly coloured.
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NZFungi Entry
Psilocybe makarorae
One of the indigenous species, found on fallen wood in native forests.