User:Boussole folle/sandbox

Distribution
Psilocybe authority Gastón Guzmán, in his 1983 monograph on psilocybin mushrooms, considered Psilocybe semilanceata the world's most widespread psilocybin mushroom species, as it has been reported on 17 countries. In Europe, P. semilanceata has a widespread distribution.

Here are the confirmed location :

Austria , Belgium , Bulgaria , the Channel Islands , Czech republic , Denmark , Estonia , the Faroe Islands , Finland , France , Georgia , Germany  , Hungary , Ireland , Italy , Lithuania , the Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Romania , Western Russia , Slovakia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland United Kingdom

It is generally agreed that the species is native to Europe; Watling has demonstrated that there exists little difference between specimens collected from Spain and Scotland, at both the morphological and genetic level.

The mushroom also has a widespread distribution in North America. In Canada it has been collected from British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Quebec. In the United States, it is most common in the Pacific Northwest, west of the Cascade Mountains, where it fruits abundantly in autumn and early winter; fruiting has also been reported to occur infrequently during spring months. Charles Horton Peck reported the mushroom to occur in New York in the early 20th century, and consequently, much literature published since then has reported the species to be present in the eastern United States. Gaston Guzman later examined Peck's herbarium specimen, and in his comprehensive 1983 monograph on Psilocybe, concluded that Peck had misidentified it with the species now known as Panaeolina foenisecii. P. semilanceata is much less common in South America, where it has been recorded in Chile. It is also known in Australia (where it may be an introduced species) and New Zealand, where it grows in high-altitude grasslands. In 2000, it was reported from Golaghat, in the Indian state of Assam.

http://creamjournal.org/PDFs/Cream_4_1_5.pdf

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dta.1795/pdf

Description

 * Pileus: 5 – in diameter and 6 – tall. It varies in shape from sharply conical to bell-shaped, often with a prominent papilla (a nipple-shaped structure), and does not change shape considerably as it ages. The cap margin is initially rolled inward but unrolls to become straight or even curled upwards in maturity. The cap is hygrophanous, meaning it assumes different colors depending on its state of hydration. When it is moist, the cap is ochraceous to pale brown to dark chestnut brown, but darker in the center, often with a greenish-blue tinge. When moist, radial grooves (striations) can be seen on the cap that correspond to the positions of the gills underneath. When the cap is dry, it becomes much paler, a light yellow-brown color. Moist mushrooms have sticky surfaces that result from a thin gelatinous film called a pellicle. This film becomes apparent if a piece of the cap is broken by bending it back and peeling away the piece. When the cap dries from exposure to the sun, the film turns whitish and is no longer peelable..


 * Gills: On the underside of the mushroom's cap, there are between 15 and 27 individual narrow gills that are moderately crowded together, and they have a narrowly adnexed to almost free attachment to the stipe. Their color is initially pale brown, but becomes dark gray to purple-brown with a lighter edge as the spores mature.


 * Spore Print: In deposit, the spores are a deep reddish purple-brown color.


 * Stipe: The slender yellowish-brown stipe is 45 – long by 1 – thick, and usually slightly thicker towards the base. The mushroom has a thin cobweb-like partial veil that does not last long before disappearing; sometimes, the partial veil leaves an annular zone on the stipe that may be darkened by spores. The flesh is thin and membrane-like, and roughly the same color as the surface tissue.


 * Taste: It has a farinaceous (similar to freshly ground flour) taste.


 * Odor: It has a farinaceous (similar to freshly ground flour) odor.


 * Microscopic features: The spores are oblong when seen in side view, and oblong to oval in frontal view, with dimensions of 10.5–15 by 6.5–8.5 μm. The basidia (spore bearing cells of the hymenium), are 20–31 by 5–9 μm, four-spored, and have clamps at their bases; there are no basidia found on the sterile gill edge. The cheilocystidia (cystidia on the gill edge) measure 15–30 by 4–7 μm, and are flask-shaped with long thin necks that are 1–3.5 μm wide. P. semilanceata does not have pleurocystidia (cystidia on the gill face). The cap cuticle is up to 90 μm thick, and is made of a tissue layer called an ixocutis—a gelatinized layer of hyphae lying parallel to the cap surface. The hyphae comprising the ixocutis are cylindrical, hyaline, and 1–3.5 μm wide. Immediately under the cap cuticle is the subpellis, made of hyphae that are 4–12 μm wide with yellowish-brown encrusted walls. There are clamp connections present in the hyphae of all tissues.

All parts of the mushroom will stain a bluish color if handled or bruised, and it may naturally turn blue with age.

The white mycelium at he base of the stem is struck with blue tones. As the specimens dry further, more bluing is observed. (The mycelium bruises blue.)Stamets 61. Since P. semilanceata is low in psilocin, a co-indicator, it rarely bruises bluish. Stamets 144. towards the base, where the attached mycelium may become bluish tinged, especially during drying.Stamets 142.

P. semilanceata odor desribed as reminiscent of radishes or poppies, but not generally unpleasant.Gartz 22. As part of his investigation of the Psilocybe genus, Guzman noted a common trait among the hallucinogenic species, in addition to the bluing reaction: a flour-like smell or taste.Gartz 62.

By contrast, Psilocybe semilanceata, Conocybe cyanopus and Inocybe aeruginascens are species whose stems develop only slight stains m reaction to pressure and only after a relatively long time period has elapsed.Gartz 63.