Jochen Gartz - Magic Mushrooms Around the ... - preterhuman.net

Psilocybe semilanceata is a mushroom
species whose mycelia grow at a significantly
slower rate than the mycelia of Psilocybe
cubensis, Gymnopilus purpuratus, Panaeolus
subbalteatus and Psilocybe bohemica. Despite the
fact that only a few strains of Psilocybe
semilanceata actually fruited, cultivation of this
species succeeded with different substrates. After
a mycelial growth period of three to four months,
the mushrooms emerged on compost (see Figure
46) as well as on a mixture consisting of grass
seeds, dung, and rice (see Figure 66, p. 116). Four
flushes of fruiting bodies were observed.
Panaeolus subbalteatus also fruited after
92 days on a mixture of cow dung and damp rice.
The physical appearance of these fruiting bodies
differed considerably from specimens of the same
species that had grown on naturally occurring
substrates (Figure 3, p. 6 and Figure 51, p. 76).
According to Stamets and Chilton,
Panaeolus cyanescens is a species that does not
fruit without a cover layer. However, this
statement does not seem very plausible,
considering the species can be found, much like
Psilocybe cubensis, growing on top of dung under
natural conditions.
Psilocybe bohemica was another species
that fruited on damp rice after two or three
months. These in-vitro specimens also appeared
to be much hardier in comparison to fruiting
bodies collected at a natural location near Sazava,
Bohemia (Czech Republic). The cultivated
specimens even developed two (!) rings, yet these
robust mushrooms did not fruit until after an
exposure to the shock of cold temperatures (see
Figure 44, p. 71).
At about the same time, Gymnopilus
purpuratus fruited on a moist mixture of rice and
saw dust after six to eight weeks (see Figure 43,
p. 71). In this case, however, the cultivated
mushrooms turned out to be smaller than fruiting
bodies that developed from fruiting mycelia on
wood shavings at a location outside the laboratory
(Figure 30, p. 40).
During the 1980s, there were also reports
about success in cultivating psilocybin-containing
sclerotia of Psilocybe mexicana and its close
relative Psilocybe tampanensis Guzman &
Pollock. In both cases, the sclerotia form after
three to twelve weeks, preferably in the dark on a
substrate of lolium (rye grass) seeds. All strains of
Psilocybe tampanensis originate from a
single fruiting body that was found near Tampa,
Florida in 1977. Sclerotia from this species have
also been cultivated on a straw substrate.
Compared to lolium seeds, soft rice has the
advantage of not drying out as fast, so that the
sclerotia will form more evenly than they would
on rye grass seeds. A photograph of Psilocybe
tampanensis sclerotia is shown on page 117
(Figure 69).
Psilocybe natalensis, which we first
discovered in South Africa in January 1994 (see
Chapter 7.6), is another species that easily fruits,
within four to eight weeks, on compost or on
straw with potting soil for a casing.
In closing, I would like to comment on
the mycorrhiza problem. Due to the close
interrelationship between mushroom mycelia
and their symbiotic partner trees, there exists a
unique exchange of growth hormones and other
products - substances whose study has only just
begun. For this reason, all attempts to fruit these
species in-vitro have remained unsuccessful.
Nonetheless, we were able to start mycelial
cultures from some of these species, but in most
cases, growth rates remained very slow. As a
result of my own investigations, I was able to
isolate sterile cultures from Inocybe
aeruginascens (see Figure 50, p. 75), which
grew and developed greenish sclerotia at the
same time. The dried mycelial mass contained
about 0.1 % psilocybin, Figure 48 (p. 74) shows
three Inocybe aeruginascens fruiting bodies
whose mycelia grew naturally. These mycelia
were found to contain no baeocystin and less
psilocybin (0.05%) than the fruiting bodies
shown in Figure 48.
Several months after these mycelia had
been isolated from spores and fruiting body
tissue samples, they began to degenerate and lost
their ability to sustain growth, most likely
because information available about conditions
and requirements for optimal growth was
insufficient.
Incidents of mycelial degeneration in
saprophytic species have rarely been described
in the literature. However, this condition can be
easily prevented through usage of more than just
one type of nutrient media; thus, the specific
composition of a medium should be changed
from time to time. In addition, only fast-growing
mycelial threads (rhizomorphs) should be
selected for propagation. By contrast, prolonged
degeneration of strains can be caused by new
inoculations of material taken from agar-based