Panaeolus cyanescens
(Berk. & Broome) Sacc. · Panaeolus (Copelandia)
Blue meanie · Copelandia · Hawaiian
Not a Psilocybe at all, but among the most potent psilocybin mushrooms in the world, comparable to azurescens and roughly two to three times cubensis. Small, thin-fleshed and pale, so a strong dose weighs very little.
Potency
- Psilocybin
- 0.17–0.95% of dry weight
- Psilocin
- 0.16–1.19% of dry weight
- Total tryptamines
- 0.5–2.1%
- Relative to cubensis
- 2.38×
Unusually high psilocin relative to psilocybin, which means fast onset and poorer keeping qualities. The thin flesh is the trap: a dose that looks like a large handful is far less material than the same handful of cubensis.
Dose ranges for this species
| Tier | Dried | Psilocybin | What to expect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold | 0.13–0.42 g | 1.9–6.3 mg | Mild body load, slight colour and texture enhancement, mood shift. |
| Light | 0.42–0.74 g | 6.3–11 mg | Clear perceptual change. Surfaces breathe, emotions amplify, time distorts mildly. |
| Common | 0.74–1.05 g | 11–15.8 mg | Full psychedelic effect. Strong visuals with eyes closed, altered thought, emotional intensity. |
| Strong | 1.05–2.1 g | 15.8–31.5 mg | Ordinary self-reference goes. Marked visual distortion, time stops behaving. |
| Heavy | 2.1 g and above | 31.5 mg and above | Complete disruption of the ordinary sense of being a person in a place. |
Scaled from the standard dried-cubensis tables by this species’ representative alkaloid content. Because that content varies between flushes, treat every figure as an estimate and start below it. Open the full calculator.
Identification
Easiest way to tell: Mottled black gills and a jet-black spore print, on a pale small cap growing directly from dung.
- Cap
- 1.5–4 cm, hemispherical to convex, pale grey to off-white or light tan, often cracking in dry weather. Never strongly coloured.
- Gills
- Adnate, mottled grey becoming black, the mottling is a Panaeolus character and is diagnostic against Psilocybe.
- Stem
- 6–12 cm, very thin, pale grey to pinkish, bruising blue-green.
- Ring
- Absent.
- Flesh
- Bruises blue-green readily.
- Spore print
- Jet black
- Bruising
- Blue-green, readily
Habitat
- Substrate
- Cattle and horse dung, Well-manured pasture
- Regions
- Tropical and subtropical worldwide, Hawaii, Southeast Asia, Central America, Southern United States, Australia
- Season
- Warm wet months, year-round in the tropics
A dung specialist of warm climates, often in the same pastures as cubensis.
Look-alikes
Cultivation
Grown on manure-based substrate. Fussier than cubensis about humidity and fresh air, and more prone to contamination, but well documented.
Cultivation guidesSources
- [1]Stamets, Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World (1996)