Where Do Magic Mushrooms Grow?

Overview: Magic mushrooms, despite being illegal in many regions, can be found growing worldwide in diverse climates. They flourish in environments such as damp forests, mulched parklands, and country paddocks. With approximately 180 different species, magic mushrooms thrive in urban settings like parks and gardens as well. This article outlines their global distribution, including North America, and explores the climatic conditions that support their growth. It also provides pointers on how to distinguish magic mushrooms from other fungi. Understanding their habitat preferences and physical characteristics is crucial for identification and differentiation from potentially toxic mushrooms.

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Global Distribution of Magic Mushrooms: Thriving Across Diverse Climates

Although magic mushrooms are illegal in many regions of the world, these psychoactive fungi can ironically be found growing across the globe in diverse climatic zones. A damp forest floor, mulched parkland, or a bucolic country paddock can harbor hundreds of psychedelic mushrooms.

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There are an estimated 180 different species of magic mushrooms. While some thrive in more exotic settings, many flourish in urban settings such as parks or gardens.

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In this article, we’ll outline the continents where magic mushrooms can be found, where they grow in North America, the climatic conditions in which they thrive, and provide some brief pointers on how they can be distinguished from other fungi.

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Where Do Magic Mushrooms Grow Around the Globe?

Magic mushrooms are the colloquial term for mushrooms that contain the psychoactive alkaloids psilocybin, psilocin, and sometimes baeocystin. These fungi are found throughout continents all over the world, with the exception of Antarctica. Magic mushroom species span tropical, subtropical, and temperate climates, with the genus Psilocybe being the most prolific type. 

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While some species of Psilocybe are unique to one specific geographical location, others, such as Psilocybe cyanescens, are found throughout the globe in locales as diverse as the U.S., Europe, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. While winds may have carried magic mushroom spores to far-flung places, some mycology experts suggest that human habitats may have helped to spread certain species. 

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P. cyanescens, for example, may have spread through wood chips commonly used as mulch. Wood chips are sometimes referred to as the “fast food of the fungal world”. Mycelium, the root structure from which mushrooms fruit, can live in piles at wood chip or mulch distribution centers.

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When wood chips are distributed to a new location, the P. cyanescens mycelium travels too. Urban or suburban environments that make heavy use of mulch or wood chips, therefore, offer an ideal environment for magic mushrooms to flourish. In this way, magic mushrooms have become inextricably linked with human civilization.

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Where Do Magic Mushrooms Grow in North America?

North America can be divided into several climatic regions, many of which provide ideal conditions for diverse species of magic mushrooms to grow.

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Temperate, oceanic parts of the West Coast, such as California, Washington, and Oregon, are home to diverse species of psilocybin-containing magic mushrooms, including P. azurescens, P. cyanescens, P. allenii, P. pelliculosa, P. stuntzii, and P. baeocystis, which flourish during the chilly nights and damp mornings of spring and autumn. These particular species thrive in well-irrigated beds of wood chips, decomposing wood, or beside riverbeds.

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Psilocybe cubensis and Psilocybe tampanensis, on the other hand, can be found in more humid subtropical and tropical climates such as Florida and the Gulf Coast, typically in open grasslands or the feces of herbivorous animals.

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The humid continental climate of Northeast USA provides an ideal home for Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata and Psilocybe caerulipes, both of which can be found growing in woody debris or mulch.

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Which Conditions Support the Growth of Magic Mushrooms?

In general, magic mushrooms thrive in the dung deposits of animals, open grasslands, woodlands, and urban gardens. This diversity has led to mycophiles categorizing magic mushrooms into three main types based on their habitat preferences:

• Lignicolous fungi grow on wood, contributing to the decay of its cellular structure. This process ultimately creates a decomposing substrate on which saprophytic mushrooms can thrive. Many mushrooms of the Gymnopilus genus are lignicolous.
• Saprophytic mushrooms grow on rotting logs or decomposing plant-based materials like mulch. These mushrooms thrive on wood that has already begun decaying, rather than on trees or branches that have just fallen. P. semilanceata, which grows in oceanside grasslands, meadows, pastures, and decomposing grass, represents an example of a saprophytic species.
• Coprophilous mushrooms grow on the microbe-rich dung of herbivores. P. cubensis is recognized as a coprophilous mushroom species.

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P. azurescens and P. cyanescens are both species that can thrive in woodlands or urban gardens (provided wood chips and mulch are in abundance). 

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For magic mushrooms that favor temperate, oceanic climates, fall represents the ideal time for mushrooms to begin fruiting. During summer, mushroom mycelium places its energy into spreading its underground rooting networks. When fall arrives, the damp, cool, dewy weather provides the ideal opportunity for the mushrooms to begin fruiting above ground.

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In the case of humid tropical and subtropical zones such as Florida, magic mushrooms are available year-round, so long as the weather is warm and humid.

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Growing Magic Mushrooms Indoors

Magic mushrooms can be grown indoors by reproducing their ideal climate and nourishing them with a suitable nutrient source. 

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Some species are easier to cultivate in indoor settings than others. Psilocybe cubensis, for example, can be grown relatively easily by creating an artificially warm, humid environment and providing a nutrient-rich growing substrate. P. cubensis is also relatively resilient in the face of sub-optimal conditions. 

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Other species, however, are more challenging to cultivate in indoor settings because they’re activated by specific environmental triggers that are difficult to emulate indoors. 

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Mushrooms that are grown inside can also provide ideal conditions for bacteria and mold to proliferate, so careful hygiene and sterilization measures are required to keep unwanted pathogens at bay.

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How to Identify Magic Mushrooms

Distinguishing magic mushrooms from other mushroom species can be challenging, even for seasoned mycologists. Magic mushrooms are not the only kind of fungi that flourish in damp decomposing wood, or open grasslands — many other species also thrive in these conditions, including highly poisonous ones.  

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In general, most species of magic mushrooms look small, brown, and relatively unremarkable to the naked eye. The subtle characteristics of a mushroom’s cap, gills, and stem are therefore invaluable in distinguishing one species of Psilocybe from another or identifying a toxic look-alike.

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Psilocybe mushrooms can be physically identified by several distinctive features:

• The mushroom bruises a bluish color when pressed, particularly around the stem. Psilocybe mushrooms also leave a purple-black spore print when pressed.
• Psilocybe mushrooms have gills (lamellae) from which the spores are dispersed. These gills are attached to the underside of the cap and radiate outwards from the stem. They tend to be very thin and delicate.
• Psilocybe stems (stipes) are usually tough and fibrous. If you slightly bend the stem, it shouldn’t snap.
• Psilocybe mushrooms have a smooth cap (pileus) that feels sticky. Psilocybe caps are hygrophanous, which means that the cap has a gelatinous outer layer. When this layer is moist, it is dark brown or caramel-colored but becomes lighter as it dries. Caps can vary in size but often measure from 2 to 5 cm.
• Psilocybe mycelium is white. The hyphae (mycelial threads) are characterized by thick strands that are similar in texture to a soft web.

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Variability of Psilocybe Mushrooms

There is also considerable diversity within the Psilocybe genus, however. P. subaeruginosa, for example, has some distinctive features compared to other magic mushrooms. The stems tend to be thick and can sometimes be twisty, and their caps can grow up to six centimeters or even more. 

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Some P. subaeruginosa mushrooms may have caps that are brown or gold in color, while others are creamy or yellow-toned. Sometimes the caps undulate, in other cases, it may have a pointed tip (called an umbo) in the center. 

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Familiarizing yourself with the overall features of a species can provide you with a general idea of its physical characteristics — and how to distinguish it from other types of edible or poisonous mushrooms. 

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P. subaeruginosa, for example, can be easily confused with various toxic species that look similar and grow in the same habitat. Matching physical features with environmental context can therefore represent a helpful way to definitively identify a specific magic mushroom species.

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One of the most accurate ways to physically identify a mushroom is to take its spore print. A spore print involves cutting the cap away from the stem of the mushroom and lightly pressing its gills (underside of the cap) onto a piece of paper. Mushrooms with white or light prints can be pressed onto black paper.

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The cap is then left on the paper for up to one hour. When the cap is removed, the spore print is visible. Mycology resources and online forums and groups can help to identify spore prints and attribute them to a certain genus, or sometimes, a more specific species.

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In Summary...

Magic mushroom species can be found in diverse locations and climates all over the world. While some species prefer humid subtropical or tropical climates, such as P. cubensis, others thrive in temperate oceanic climates, like P. cyanescens. 

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Within these climatic zones, species also thrive in different conditions: some are saprophytic (growing on decomposing plant matter); some are coprophilous (growing in animal dung), and others are lignicolous (growing on wood).

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Developing an awareness of the preferred habitat of different species of magic mushrooms, along with their physical characteristics, is essential to identifying them and differentiating them from potentially poisonous mushrooms.

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