Psilocybe semilanceata
(Fr.) P. Kumm. · Psilocybe sect. Semilanceatae
Liberty cap · Witch's hat · Spitzkegeliger Kahlkopf
The common wild psilocybin mushroom of northern Europe, and one of the most potent by dry weight. Tiny, a hundred caps might weigh five grams dried, which routinely leads people to underestimate a dose by counting caps rather than weighing them.
3 deadly look-alikes. Galerina marginata, Pholiotina rugosa, Cortinarius species can be mistaken for this species and cause irreversible organ damage. How to tell them apart.
Potency
- Psilocybin
- 0.2–2.37% of dry weight
- Psilocin
- 0–0.2% of dry weight
- Total tryptamines
- 0.5–2.5%
- Relative to cubensis
- 1.59×
One of the widest ranges of any species, and the highest single psilocybin assay on record at 2.37%. Psilocin content is low, so material stores well but the come-up can be slower. Counting caps is not a dose method: cap weight varies more than tenfold.
Dose ranges for this species
| Tier | Dried | Psilocybin | What to expect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold | 0.19–0.63 g | 1.9–6.3 mg | Mild body load, slight colour and texture enhancement, mood shift. |
| Light | 0.63–1.1 g | 6.3–11 mg | Clear perceptual change. Surfaces breathe, emotions amplify, time distorts mildly. |
| Common | 1.1–1.58 g | 11–15.8 mg | Full psychedelic effect. Strong visuals with eyes closed, altered thought, emotional intensity. |
| Strong | 1.58–3.15 g | 15.8–31.5 mg | Ordinary self-reference goes. Marked visual distortion, time stops behaving. |
| Heavy | 3.15 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 sharply conical cap with a distinct nipple that never flattens, on a thin wavy stem, growing in grass, never on dung and never on wood.
- Cap
- 0.5–2.5 cm, sharply conical and never flattening, with a distinct nipple-like papilla at the apex. Chestnut when wet, drying to pale straw. Often with a translucent striate margin.
- Gills
- Narrow, crowded, pale cream becoming purple-brown to almost black.
- Stem
- 4–10 cm, very thin, wavy, pale and often slightly tougher than it looks.
- Ring
- Absent.
- Flesh
- Bruises blue only weakly and often only at the stem base.
- Spore print
- Dark purple-brown
- Bruising
- Weak, often confined to the stem base, sometimes absent
Habitat
- Substrate
- Nutrient-rich grassland, Sheep and cattle pasture, Lawns and playing fields
- Regions
- Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia, Northern and central Europe, Pacific Northwest, New Zealand, Chile
- Season
- Late August to November, after cool wet weather
It grows in grass fertilised by grazing animals, not out of the dung itself. That distinction separates it from the dung specialists and from several look-alikes.
Look-alikes
- Galerina marginataDeadly
Spore print: Rusty brown to ochre-brown
- Pholiotina rugosaDeadly
Spore print: Rusty brown to cinnamon
- Cortinarius speciesDeadly
Spore print: Rusty brown, always
- Inocybe speciesToxic
Spore print: Dull brown to clay-brown, never purple
- Panaeolina foeniseciiHarmless
Spore print: Dark brown with a reddish tone, neither purple nor black
Cultivation
Effectively not cultivated. It appears to need a living grass-root association nobody has reliably reproduced indoors, and decades of attempts have not produced a working method.
Cultivation guidesSources
- [1]Stamets, Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World (1996)
- [2]Beug & Bigwood, 'Psilocybin and psilocin levels in twenty species' (1982)