Psilocybe cubensis

(Earle) Singer · Psilocybe sect. Cubensae

Golden teacher · Cube · Gold cap · San Isidro

Moderate potency

The species almost everyone means when they say 'magic mushrooms'. It is the easiest to cultivate, the most widely available and the one every published dose table is implicitly written for. Moderate potency by the standards of the genus, several wild species are two to three times stronger.

Photo: evlyshroom, CC BY, source.

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Potency

Psilocybin: 0.14–1.3% of dry weight
Psilocin: 0.11–0.5% of dry weight
Total tryptamines: 0.25–1.8%
Relative to cubensis: 1× (this is the reference)

The fourfold between-flush variation measured in this species is the reason no dose figure anywhere on this site is exact. Cultivated material is more consistent than wild, but 'more consistent' is not 'consistent'. Do not assume later flushes are weaker: Bigwood and Beug found no downward trend in psilocybin across flushes, and psilocin, often absent in the first flush, rose in later ones.

Dose ranges for this species

Tier	Dried	Psilocybin-equivalent	What to expect
Threshold	0.3–0.5 g	1.9–3.2 mg	Mild body load, slight colour and texture enhancement, mood shift.
Light	0.5–1 g	3.2–6.3 mg	Clear perceptual change. Surfaces breathe, emotions amplify, time distorts mildly.
Common	1–2.5 g	6.3–15.8 mg	Full psychedelic effect. Strong visuals with eyes closed, altered thought, emotional intensity.
Strong	2.5–5 g	15.8–31.5 mg	Ordinary self-reference goes. Marked visual distortion, time stops behaving.
Heavy	5 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: A persistent white ring dusted dark purple-brown with fallen spores, on a stem that bruises blue.

Cap: 2–8 cm, conical becoming broadly convex then flat, often with a low central umbo. Golden to reddish brown, paler and yellowish at the margin, fading as it dries.
Gills: Adnate to adnexed, pale grey becoming near-black and mottled as the spores mature. Edges often remain whitish.
Stem: 4–15 cm, white, thickening slightly toward the base, bruising blue where handled.
Ring: A persistent white membranous ring on the upper stem, usually dusted purple-black by falling spores.
Flesh: White, staining blue to blue-green on cutting or bruising.
Spore print: Dark purple-brown to purple-black
Bruising: Blue to blue-green, readily, within minutes

Habitat

Substrate: Cattle dung, Water buffalo dung, Well-manured pasture
Regions: Southeastern United States, Mexico, Central and South America, Caribbean, Southeast Asia, Australia, India
Season: Warm and wet months; year-round in the tropics

A dung specialist of warm climates. It does not grow on wood and it does not grow on unmanured ground. Anything claimed to be cubensis from a European lawn is not cubensis.

Look-alikes

Compare every mushroom look-alike of Psilocybe cubensis side by side, or read the full look-alikes guide.

Cultivation

beginner

Colonises fast, fruits readily, tolerates mistakes better than any other psilocybin species. The reason it dominates: it is forgiving, not because it is strongest.

Cultivation guides

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.

Sources

[1]Stamets, Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World (1996)
[2]Bigwood & Beug, 'Variation of psilocybin and psilocin levels with repeated flushes of Psilocybe cubensis' (1982)

How we research this: sources, evidence grading, review and updates.