Psilocybe weilii

[waylitjim]

Pronounced "while-ee-eye"

This is not new information, just a collection of photos and text to shed some light on this species.

History
In recognition of his numerous contributions to the fields of ethnomycology, ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology, Dr. Andrew Weil was given the distinction of having an entheogenic Psilocybe mushroom named in his honor. Psilocybe weilii was authored by Dr. Gaston Guzman, Fidel Tapia, and Paul Stamets.

Origin
First reported from southeastern Cherokee County, in northern Georgia, after hurricane Opal swept though in 1995.

Habitat
Gregarious to cespitose, sometimes scattered in red-clay soil topped with a thin layer of needles from loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) underneath sweetgun (Liquidambar styraciflua). Fruiting from early september through November between temperatures of 45°F -80°F preferring 60°F -75°F.

Notes
This is the first report of a lignicolous, caerulescent psilocybe from Georgia. Additionally, the strong bluing reaction and its tendency to form clusters are characteristics also shared with Psilocybe caerulescens, Psilocybe baeocystis, and Psilocybe aztecorum. Chemical analysis of this mushroom revealed .61% psilocybin, .27% psilocin, .05% baeocystin, and .32% L-tryptophan

One shroomer said, "Eating the Psilocybe weilii mushroom has given me life changing experiences. Of all the shrooms i have encountered, the weilii mushroom is the end all be all of all psychoactive mushrooms. They're completely out of this world and EXTREMELY potent, they rank up there next to azures and cyans.























Credits: Paul Stamets, Gumby, Lizard King, Chrism, Batman & Phishhead

[waylitjim]

Cultivation
Difficult to extremely difficult. There's only been one successful cultivation attempt that I know of.

This was done by Aaron a few years ago.

Two glass slide samples of spores of Psilocybe weilii were provided for cultivation experiments. One slide was labeled as produced from a mushroom growing in August (Strain.2#.)and the other was designated as September (Strain.D#). A sample from each slide was placed a petri plate of standard malt extract media agar with gentamycin sulfate antibiotic. All plates showed visible germination in 6 days at 78F with no signs of competing organisms. At 14 days the most vigorous mycelium was selected and transferred to individual petri plates, with a standard potato dextrose yeast agar, in 7 days all had grown out.

Fruiting substrate
Hardwood sawdust 12 cups, cow dung 12 cups, wheat Grain 8 cups, verm. 4 cups, water 12 cups.
Place the substrate into a pillowcase and put it in a 5 gal. bucket, add enough water to cover medium and soak for 12 hours, then drain and put it in the jars and let the jars set for 12 hours then sterilize for 1 hour at 15 p.s.i.

casing layer
Peat moss 7 cups, verm. 3 cups, perlite 2 cups, water 6 cups.
The casing was sterilized for 1 hour and left to sit for 7 days before it was applied.

Procedure
Day 1. Agar transferred to fruiting substrate 7#.
Day 7. Jars were shaken.
Day 14. Fully colonized.
Day 14. Cased and put in the light.
Day . Bad overlay.
Day 35. Overlay was scratched off.
Day 50. Pinning (1 out of 15) (Strain.2#).
Day 56. Growth Stopped. (Strain.2#).
Day 57. Pinning (2 out of 15) (Strain.D#).
Day 71. (Strain.2#) Has made 2 more pinheads.
Day 71. (Strain.D#) Has made 8 pinheads.
Day 72. (Strain.D#) Has made 10 pinheads.
Day 76. (Strain.D#) Has made 12 pinheads.
Day 81. Growth Stopped. (Strain.2#).
Day 81. (Strain.D#) Fruitbody are 2 to 2.5 in. tall.
Day 82. Veil's broke.
Day 88. Fruitbody were harvested, 3.5 to 4 in tall.

Notes
1. No overlay occurred on (Strain.D#).
2. The one strain from the August print (Strain.2#.)did make pins on day 50 and day 71 both aborted.
3. Diffuse sunlight and 13 hours/day of fluorescent light.
4. Temp. 68. to 75.F.

Strain.D produced four flushes of robust fruitbody and the experiments was ended at that time. Psilocybe weilii seems to be resistant to contamination when compared to other Psilocybe species.

Photo/text credit - Aaron








This photo below from Workman shows P. weilii fruiting on agar.



Cap: 2-6 cm broad. Campanulate to bluntly conic with an inrolled margin when young, then incurved, often with an irregular, soon expanding to broadly convex to nearly plane, to uplifted in age. Dark chestnut brown to deep olivaceous brown, typically with a blackish brown zone around the disc, where flesh is 3-4 mm thick at its center. Strongly hygrophanous, fading in drying to pallid brown to light brown. Flesh whitish, bruising bluish. Surface viscid when moist from a separable gelatinous pellicle, translucent-striate near the margin, which can split in age and become tough and opaque in drying.

Stem: 25-70 mm long by 4-8 mm thick. Equal, swelling towards the base, which projects white rhizomorphs. White, becoming dingy brown, bruising bluish overall in age or from drying, covered with a well developed sheath of whitish fibrillose patches below, and pruinose above. Cartilaginous, strigose, hollow, stuffed with a whitish pith. Partial veil cortinate, leaving a fibrillose annular zone sometimes dusted with purplish violet-brown spores.

Gills: Attachment adnate to sinuate with two tiers of intermediate gills, close, even, broad, light brown overall with pallid, floccose edges. Becoming dark chocolate brown at maturity.

Microscopic features: Spores dark violet grayish black in deposit, subellipsoid in side view, subrhomboid to subellipsoid in face view, 5.5-6.5 by 4-5 microns in side view. Basidia 4-spored. Plaurocystidia abundant, subfusoid or ventricose-rostrate with short apex, or sublageniform, 10.5-24 by 5-10.5 microns. Cheilocystidia lageniform with short, single, or branched neck, 20-37.5 by 5-6.5 microns.

[llamabox]

Great info as always Waylit.

But don't forget...
http://www.weilii.com

[shimmy]

way cool as always waylit

[python]

looks like "aaron" got some nice ones though.........

great info waylit.........

[Disruptor]

Nice! That is the perfect format for a grow log. The best I've seen yet. Great pictures, especially the indoor cultures. Does humidity affect coloration of the caps?

[shroom_seeker]

Thanks for sharing Waylit. Nice link too Llama - i like the music.

[aumbrellaforainydays]

88 days huh? he must have some patience, but i bet it was hella worth it.

[waylitjim]

This species does take a long time to fruit.

Originally Posted by workman

P. weilii needs about 2 months after casing before pinning. This is a consistant feature and so far I have been unable to reduce this time to any significant degree. After it starts, it flushes regularly at about 2 week intervals. Horse manure and grass seed substrates have worked equally well.

[SquaresandCubes]

Id be curious to find out what the range of habitat is on this one I wonder how far it extends out of northern Georgia.

[the_chosen_one]

Outstanding write up as usual Jim

[waylitjim]

Originally Posted by SquaresandCubes

Id be curious to find out what the range of habitat is on this one I wonder how far it extends out of northern Georgia.

They're a relatively new species, so their range is still being discovered. For hunting, I'd stick to counties in the northern Atlanta metro area like Cherokee, Cobb, Fulton, Forsyth, Bartow, and Gwinnett County.

[dial8]

Damn, waylit, another nice post, indeed! Man these things will be all over the SE US before we know it.

[Bobcat]

Has anyone ever tried fruiting right off a PF cake? Just asking cause that one pic looks like it fruited right off the MEA. If it can do that, then why not off a cake or straight grain?

[llamabox]

These were all fruited on an alternative recipe of a PF cake.

The big question that I can think of is, are these woodlovers or not?

[Bobcat]

They are woodlovers- but apparently dig the complex life as they eat the hpoo too.

But what I was saying was that if they can fruit on MEA, then wouldn't they be able to fruit off a straight n standard PF cake. Or even better, a cake like Waylit uses to grow pans. Sans the wood, perhaps it would speed things up?

[waylitjim]

Originally Posted by Bobcat

that one pic looks like it fruited right off the MEA.

Workman was lucky enough to acquire spores from Aaron's original isolate, possibly why it fruited on agar.

Weilii are a lignicolous species, they fruit on dead wood, decaying grass, leaves, and other organic debris. They also have an affinity for pine straw and soils high in red clay. Perhaps the pH of the clay is a factor?

[Bobcat]

Redclay? Hmmmm, you got me. Im not from the south, so correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't redclay pretty common? Maybe it is a coincidence that the clay they have been found in is red. Or ph. Or they like iron. Who knows.

They sure are purdy though! Thanks for the info Waylit!

[dial8]

Yes red clay is very common as well as all of the other types of environmental characteristics conducive for this kind of fungus. That is whay I am very optomistic that before long we will find these from GA to LA.

[golly]

These "while-ee-eye's may well be in the process of expanding their range
through out the Appalachian foothills ...maybe all descendent from a single
fruiting mushroom not so long ago...

I'm sure some folks will give em some help in that reguard..heh...

Excellent pix wlj .they're much more robust than i imagined them to be..

While-ee-eye...i like that name...

[SharkieJones]

Lovely write up as usual Jim.

[hydrocodone]

Good read! I guess it's getting to be a little too cold to find any now

I don't know about red clay being all that common in all of the US, but it's everywhere here

[BuckarooBanzai]

Jim, your threads never fail to impress - and impress DEEPLY.

Outstanding stuff, man. Just outstanding.

[troutlips]

Another great thread from waylitjim, interesting AND informative!
archive material/strainbase.

[dial8]

All the pics I see of this species there is only minimal bluing and some not at all. Is this typical?

[dial8]

Like this picture here. There should be a lot of bluing on the base of the stem if it is a hard bluing species.

[StroFun]

Do you think they would fruit quicker or colonize faster from a pasteurized substrate?
What are the fruiting temps in nature?
The link LL posted is not working for me
Thanks for teh great write up Jim!

[StroFun]

Originally Posted by llamabox

Great info as always Waylit.

But don't forget...http://www.weilii.com/

link doesn't work for me.

[waylitjim]

Originally Posted by dial8

Like this picture here. There should be a lot of bluing on the base of the stem if it is a hard bluing species.

Here you can see some nice bluing on the stems.

[dial8]

Yeah that one is definitely blue. The above picture I posted looks like two or three of them have been broken at the base. Am I mistaken?

[waylitjim]

D8, you're right, I looked thru a bunch of other pictures and only about 50% display bluing, and it's usually minimal. So I don't know, possilby weilii have lower concentrations of psilocin, and there is less oxidation occuring? (.61% Psilocybin, .27% Psilocin) Here's another an example of the very minimal bluing.

[dial8]

That is cool, jim. I too looked at several different pics and found only minimal bruising. The reason I'm so curious is because I found a psilocybe looking species but it did not bruise so I chunked it. Probably nothing magical about the one I found but my mind keeps going back to it.