Psilocybe mexicana is apsychedelic mushroom. Its first known usage was by the natives ofNorth andCentral America over 2,000 years ago. Known to theAztecs as teonanácatl, from theNahuatlteotl ("god") +nanácatl ("fungus"). This species was categorized by French botanistRoger Heim.[1]
It was from this species that Dr.Albert Hofmann, working with specimens grown in hisSandoz laboratory, first isolated and named the activepsychedelic compoundspsilocybin andpsilocin. Uncertain of whether or not the artificially cultivated mushrooms would retain their natural psychoactive properties, Dr. Hofmann consumed 32 specimens. The following is his account of the experience, published in his classic text,The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens:
As I was perfectly aware that my knowledge of the Mexican origin of the mushrooms would lead me to imagine only Mexican scenery, I tried deliberately to look on my environment as I knew it normally. But all voluntary efforts to look at things in their customary forms and colours proved ineffective. Whether my eyes were closed or open, I saw only Mexican motifs and colours. When the doctor supervising the experiment bent over me to check my blood pressure, he was transformed into an Aztec priest, and I would not have been astonished if he had drawn an obsidian knife. In spite of the seriousness of the situation, it amused me to see how the Germanic face of my colleague had acquired a purely Indian expression. At the peak of the intoxication, about 11⁄2 hours after ingestion of the mushrooms, the rush of interior pictures, mostly changing in shape and colour, reached such an alarming degree that I feared I would be torn into this whirlpool of form and colour and would dissolve. After about six hours, the dream came to an end. Subjectively, I had no idea how long this condition had lasted. I felt my return to everyday reality to be a happy return from a strange, fantastic but quite really experienced world into an old and familiar home.
Cap: (0.5)1 — 2(3) cm in diameter,conic tocampanulate orsubumbonate and often with a slightpapilla,hygrophanous orglabrescent, even to striate at the margin,ocherous to brown or beige to straw color in age, sometimes with blueish or greenish tones, easily turning blue when injured.
Gills:Adnate oradnexed, gray to purple-brown with whitish edges.
Spore Print: Dark purple-brown
Stipe: 4 — 10(12.5) cm tall x 1 — 2(3) mm thick, equal, hollow, straw color to brownish or reddish-brown, becoming darker where injured,annulus absent.
Microscopic features: Spores 8 — 12 x 5 — 8μm.Ovoid and smooth. Cheilocystidia 13–34μm, fusoid-ampullaceous to sublageniform, sometimes with a forked neck. Pleurocystidia sublageniform or absent.
Psilocybe mexicana may formsclerotia, a dormant form of the organism, which affords it some protection from wildfires and other natural disasters.[3]
Psilocybe mexicana grows alone or in small groups amongmoss along roadsides and trails, humid meadows or cornfields, in particular in the grassy areas borderingdeciduous forests. Common at elevations between 300–550 metres (980–1,800 ft), rare in lower elevations, known only fromMexico,Costa Rica,El Salvador andGuatemala. Fruiting takes place from May to October.
In the Western world,sclerotia ofPsilocybe mexicana are sometimes cultivated forentheogenic use. The sclerotia have a lower content of active substances than the actual mushrooms themselves.
^Heim R. (1957). "Notes préliminaires sur les agarics hallucinogènes du Mexique" [Preliminary notes on the hallucination-producing agarics of Mexico].Revue de Mycologie (in French).22 (1):58–79.
^Ramírez-Cruz, Virginia; Guzmán, Gastón; Guzmán-Dávalos, Laura (2013). "Type studies of Psilocybe sensu lato (Strophariaceae, Agaricales)".Sydowia.65:277–319.
^Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World – An Identification Guide, Paul Stamets, 1996.ISBN0-89815-839-7 p. 24
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