Psilocybe cyanescens

Wakef. · Psilocybe sect. Cyanescens

Wavy cap · Cyans

Very high potency

A potent wood-chip species that has spread widely with landscaping bark, now common in urban parks and gardens well outside its original range. Around twice the potency of cubensis, and it fruits in enormous flushes.

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2 deadly look-alikes. Galerina marginata, Cortinarius species can be mistaken for this species and cause irreversible organ damage. How to tell them apart.

Potency

Psilocybin: 0.3–1.68% of dry weight
Psilocin: 0.15–0.51% of dry weight
Total tryptamines: 0.5–2%
Relative to cubensis: 1.83×

Roughly double cubensis. Bruises very strongly, which means a high psilocin fraction and a fast onset relative to semilanceata.

Dose ranges for this species

Tier	Dried	Psilocybin	What to expect
Threshold	0.16–0.55 g	1.9–6.3 mg	Mild body load, slight colour and texture enhancement, mood shift.
Light	0.55–0.96 g	6.3–11 mg	Clear perceptual change. Surfaces breathe, emotions amplify, time distorts mildly.
Common	0.96–1.37 g	11–15.8 mg	Full psychedelic effect. Strong visuals with eyes closed, altered thought, emotional intensity.
Strong	1.37–2.74 g	15.8–31.5 mg	Ordinary self-reference goes. Marked visual distortion, time stops behaving.
Heavy	2.74 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 wavy cap margin on a ringless stem growing directly from wood chips, bruising strongly blue.

Cap: 2–5 cm, caramel to chestnut, drying pale. The margin becomes distinctly and irregularly wavy in maturity, which is the name and the best character.
Gills: Adnate, pale becoming dark purple-brown.
Stem: 3–8 cm, white, fibrous, often curved, with white mycelium binding the wood chips at the base.
Ring: Absent, though a faint cobwebby veil may show on very young specimens.
Flesh: Bruises intensely blue, among the strongest in the genus.
Spore print: Dark purple-brown
Bruising: Very strong and immediate blue

Habitat

Substrate: Landscaping wood chips, Bark mulch, Deciduous woody debris
Regions: Pacific Northwest, Britain, Northern and central Europe, New Zealand, Iran
Season: October to December, needing a cold snap to trigger fruiting

Spread internationally on mulch. Urban parks, roundabouts and garden borders are now its main habitat in Europe. It shares that habitat exactly with Galerina marginata.

Look-alikes

Cultivation

intermediate

Outdoor wood-chip beds work well; indoor fruiting is unreliable. Beds need a genuine cold shock to initiate.

Cultivation guides

Sources

[1]Stamets, Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World (1996)
[2]Beug & Bigwood, 'Psilocybin and psilocin levels in twenty species' (1982)