How to Identify Magic Mushrooms / Can anyone identify these?

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/6886/hpim0191jq7.jpg

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/1126/hpim0192zp2.jpg

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4244/hpim0193fv3.jpg

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/922/hpim0194ud3.jpg

Can anyone identify these guys?

 

They don't look like any magic mushrooms I've ever seen. So I would not advise you eat them.

 

LBM's dont eat them.

 

definitely not active

 

People get really excited when they find mushrooms in the wild, don't they?

99% of magic mushrooms you find in the wild will be one of the following four:

Cubensis ("Cube"/"Cubie"/"Golden Teacher")
http://knarkkorven.magiskamolekyler.org/svampinfo/foton/cubensis_391.jpg
http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/magic_mushrooms_aunz/images/psilocybe_cubensis14_sm.jpg
http://www.procare.nl/osc/catalog/images/mexican-cubensis.jpg

The cubensis has a white stem, golden cap, and dark purple gills. Very often you will see them having a prominent "nipple" in the middle of the cap. Good ways to be sure you've identified the cubensis are that it has a purple 'veil' (see first picture link), any part of the mushroom stains a bright blue when you pinch it (not brown, not black), and will almost always be groing in cow manure. You can sometimes find them in horse manure, but not often.

To be absolutely sure you have a Cubensis, you should take a sample mushroom home (not the whole lot), and set it gills-down on a piece of paper or tissue. After a day or so it should leave a dark purple print on the paper. If it's rusty-brown, it's poisonous. If the mushroom dropped its spores before you could get it to paper, you should just be able to tell by the color of the gills.

Psilocybe Cyanescen ("Cyan"/"Wavy Cap")
http://nepenthes.lycaeum.org/Plants/Images/Psilocybe.cyanescens.3.jpg

Have golden colored, floppy tops, brown gills, and white stems. They grow in wooded areas, usually have slimey/sticky caps, and stain a bright blue when you pinch them.


Psilocybe Semilanceata ("Lib"/"Liberty Cap")
http://www.shroomery.org/images/25319/307150581-fig5psemipilze5.jpg

Most often found in areas where short grass meets longer grass, the stems are almost never straight; instead, they are usually markedly spindly and 'kinked', might stain blue upon pinching but not always (low psilocin content), caps look like 'witch hats' -- very pointy.

I've never personally found Lib's because they don't grow in my area, but they're very common in grassy areas of the Northern US, and all over the UK.

Copelandia Cyanescen ("Cope"/"Hawaiian")
http://www.buy-magic-mushrooms.com/shop/product_image.php?imageid=7
http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/magic_mushrooms_aunz/images/copelandia_cyanescens4_sm.jpg
http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/magic_mushrooms_aunz/images/copelandia_cyanescens5_sm.jpg

White/gray 'bowl' cap, white stem, black gills. Grows in tall grass, usually (almost always) where cow manure has fertilized the ground. Bruises a bright blue (high concentration of psilocin) upon pinching.


IMPORTANT NOTE: Not all mushrooms containing psilocin/psilocybin will stain blue, and not all mushrooms that stain blue contain psilocin/psilocybin. Do not take mushroom collecting lightly, because there is a good chance you will end up sick, or at worst, dead. Yes, there are mushrooms out there which will kill you from eating a single cap.

I ate a poisonous gym once back in my early collecting days just because it stained blue. I ended up puking my guts out with no 'magic' effects.

If you're not experienced on the matter, you should bring somebody along who is to help you. If you can't do that, you should join www.shroomery.org, and post pictures of your finds to ask for confirmations about whether or not you've found anything good or dangerous.

 

Top notch post there!

 

ya forgot liberty caps man, those things are common as shit.

 

In the north and over in Europe, yeah. I edited my post to include them.

If anybody has questions regarding mushies, just ask :bigear:

 

in fact you are more likely to find liberty caps than wavy caps or flying saucers in my experiance, then again im up "north" =P, liberty caps are not very much of a stainer for it has a very low psilocin content, often doesnt stain at all, is a good example of your warning about blue stains, blue stains in magic mushies comes from psilocin breaking down under exposure to oxygen, it's more stable buddy psilocybin does not turn blue, do not ever use the judgement of the color it changes. There was a dude up in washington that ate a galerina because it stained blue, aparently it wasnt a blue stain but in fact blue mold, galerinas look kinda like wavy caps but they contain amatoxins, which are the same chemicals found in death caps and destroying angels, shitting and puking continuously for like 3 days then you're liver finaly melts and you probubly shit it out, along with a lotta other nasty things that should stay inside, most cases of amatoxin poisoning end in death, if you survive get a liver transplant and all that good stuff you'll never be the same again, the toxins break down cell walls, so as it flows through your blood you kinda start to fall apart from the inside out and it aparently extremely painful, all over your body and it doesn't go away for a long long long looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time.
The brits have a thing called milk thistle extract that if you give an injection of it to the person the same day as the mushroom was injested it clears it all up, but the fda doesnt aprove of it for some stupid fucking reason so if a doctor can actualy get his hands on it, the patient is usualy allready dead before it comes in the mail.

so be motherfucking careful kids!

 

Wavy caps are pretty prominent in wooded areas in the mid-south US around springtime. But yeah, Libs are probably really common up north. I'm not all that familiar with 'em so thanks for the tip on the bluing.

 

im up in Pennsylvania idk if this counts for me

 

what kind of shrooms can i find in virginia?

 

I dont know man.

 

even the best mycologist would tell you that he could not give you an EXACT from a photo alone with most any muchrooms

there are many things you take in, shape, color, spore color, spore prints, possible staining(not so much) time of year, temperatures, etc.

try spending some time searching and reading up on basic mycology and view as many photos as you can (DO NOT base on photos alone) and read up on spore prints, geographical location of certain varietys and other things such as that. I spent 5 months one winter reading up as many books on the subject as i could and growing from spores as many varieties of mushrooms (not just "magic" mushies) as i could to get a little more knowledge on the subject to get better at identifying mushrooms in the wild. not just for psychedelic mushrooms but wild edibles as well.

 

I've never found a shroom in the wild.

 

those really look like Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata. search them up on google or something

 

just bruise the stems, and if it starts to turn blue within an hour then you almost certainly have Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata or another psilocybe mushroom

 

Anybody know what kind would be common in the New York area and any advice on how to hunt for them. I go hiking sometimes (believe it or not we acutally do have a lot of huge parks in some parts of NYC) and I've seen fields of mushrooms growing naturally before. In a lot of places in the park the have wood chips piles like 20 feet high (I guess when they cut down the trees they dump the chips there) and they look like giant mushroom mounds during the right time of year. I've always wondered if i can find some safe hallucinagenic species but never knew what to look for.

I don't know anything on the topic and don't have any friends who do.

I plan to go pick lots of different types and post pics on this thread.

Anything in particular to look for? and also what would be my best bet to find in the NY area

 

anything in particular to look for? erm, all of the things mentioned above would be a good starting place.

found out on sunday that a dude i know has a gigantic patch in his garden that grows back every year when it's season, lucky fucker.
the mushies up here normally look like cubensis but there's a few other types aswell, it's sick, everyone knows where they grow, you just walk round picking them in front of people hahaha, good fun.

 

If they bruise blue isn't that a solid indicator that they are in fact okay to eat and as a result trip on?