Pluteus salicinus
(Pers.) P. Kumm. · Pluteus
Knackers crumpet · Willow shield
A European shield mushroom containing modest amounts of psilocybin, one of the few active species outside Psilocybe and Panaeolus. It grows on rotting hardwood and has free gills and a pink spore print, which makes it unusually easy to separate from anything dangerous.
Potency
- Psilocybin
- 0.05–0.35% of dry weight
- Psilocin
- 0–0.1% of dry weight
- Total tryptamines
- 0.05–0.4%
- Relative to cubensis
- 0.40×
Weak, roughly a third of cubensis. Of interest more for what it is than for what it does.
Dose ranges for this species
| Tier | Dried | Psilocybin-equivalent | What to expect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold | 0.76–1.26 g | 1.9–3.2 mg | Mild body load, slight colour and texture enhancement, mood shift. |
| Light | 1.26–2.52 g | 3.2–6.3 mg | Clear perceptual change. Surfaces breathe, emotions amplify, time distorts mildly. |
| Common | 2.52–6.3 g | 6.3–15.8 mg | Full psychedelic effect. Strong visuals with eyes closed, altered thought, emotional intensity. |
| Strong | 6.3–12.6 g | 15.8–31.5 mg | Ordinary self-reference goes. Marked visual distortion, time stops behaving. |
| Heavy | 12.6 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: Free gills that turn salmon-pink, and a PINK spore print. No Psilocybe, Galerina or Conocybe has a pink print, so this is unambiguous.
- Cap
- 2–8 cm, convex to plane, grey to greenish-grey, often with fine radial fibrils and a darker centre.
- Gills
- FREE, not attached to the stem at all. White becoming salmon-pink as the spores mature.
- Stem
- 3–8 cm, whitish, often with a bluish-green tinge at the base.
- Ring
- Absent.
- Flesh
- Weak blue-green staining at the stem base.
- Spore print
- Pink to salmon
- Bruising
- Weak blue-green at the stem base
Habitat
- Substrate
- Rotting hardwood, Willow, Alder, Wood chips
- Regions
- Europe, Parts of North America, Asia
- Season
- June to November
On decaying deciduous wood, usually singly rather than in flushes.
Cultivation
Medication interactions
These interactions come from psilocin itself, so they apply to every species; a more potent species means a larger dose of it. These medications are graded dangerous, caution, increases or not studied on Fungodex. Not listed here does not mean safe; check the full checker covers 24.
- LithiumDangerous
- MAOIs (irreversible)Dangerous
- TramadolDangerous
- Moclobemide and other RIMAsCaution
- Harmala alkaloidsCaution
- BupropionCaution
- Tricyclic antidepressantsCaution
- St John's WortCaution
- StimulantsCaution
- AntipsychoticsCaution
- DextromethorphanCaution
- AlcoholCaution
- CannabisIntensifies
- TriptansNo data
- 5-HTP and L-tryptophanNo data
- MAO-B inhibitorsNo data
Sources
- [1]Stamets, Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World (1996)
How we research this: sources, evidence grading, review and updates.