spiders

Already I have an update - Teonan can offer no identification as to whether these mushrooms are. He now thinks that they both have hyaline plueroCystidia - the original sample most likely being Australiana with lageniform and hyaline pluerocystidia being present. Interestingly the P.cystidia are not only lageniform but all sorts of other shapes as well - similar to the description of Ps.Eucalypta in Stamets/Guzman. His original finding of brown pigmented pleurocystidia has been altered - if Stamets thinks that Subaeruginosa has this characteristic, then NONE of the mushrooms in melbourne are Subaeruginosa. [This message has been edited by bluemeanie (edited 14 June 2002).] [This message has been edited by bluemeanie (edited 15 June 2002).]

For a number of years there has been regular patches around Melbourne that have been fruiting a mushroom that macroscopically resembles Psilocybe Cyanescens and which had been identified by a number of people - most notably Dutchie as Ps.Cyanescens. This mushroom was also reported by Guzman in 1995 and by Watling earlier as being found in Australia. To confirm this information, I gathered a few wild specimens and sporeprints of this mushroom and began the task of contacting a variety of people regarding this. John Allen was the first to reject the idea of Ps.Cyanescens in Australia and felt that both Gartz and Stamets also doubted the appearence of Ps.Cyanescens in Australia - raising the point that Ps.Subaeruginosa has been described as having wavy margins on maturity and brown pigmented pluerocystidia. An idenfication of the psilocybe found in Western Australia that was first thought to be Ps.Cyanescens was confirmed as Ps.Subaeruginosa despite macroscopically resembling Ps.Cyanescens. This mushroom was generally larger at maturity. I have sent gill fragments and sporeprints to a variety of sources - one of a regular species of Ps.Subaeruginosa, one of a suspected (but still very-much unconfirmed) Australiana, and one of the wavy-capped Ps.Cyanescens lookalike - too Workman of sporeworks, Teonan and to Gartz via John Allen. Teonan's findings where that all mushrooms had brown pigmented pleurocystidia - a characteristic only of Ps.Subaeruginosa. Although the Australiana specimen did show lageniform but pigmented Pleurocystidia = like it was half Australiana and half Subaeruginosa microscopically (lending wight to Chang and Mills' argument??) Workman's results were more ambigious, with each mushroom displaying four-spored basidia and hyaline pluerocystidia with no pigmentation noted in the specimens he examined. Gartz' results are still being established. These results all display pleurocystidia - Ps.Cyanescens as originally described by Wakefield did not even have pleurocystidia in Europe. American varieties of Ps.Cyanescens has smaller spores on average than all australian Psilocybes (spore size of ps.cyan 9-12 by 5-8 vs. Subaeruginosa 13-15 by 6-7.7) has 4 spored basidia, but has pleurocystidia described by Stamets as mucronate, fuscoid-ventricose to subpyriform. For more info and pictures of mushrooms specimens and microscans try this link: http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php?Cat= &Board=Forum3&Number=675799&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1#Post675939://http://www.shroomery.org/forums/sho...rt=1#Post675939://http://www.shroomery.org/forums/sho...rt=1#Post675939://http://www.shroomery.org/forums/sho...rt=1#Post675939://http://www.shroomery.org/forums/sho...rt=1#Post675939://http://www.shroomery.org/forums/sho...rt=1#Post675939://http://www.shroomery.org/forums/sho...rt=1#Post675939://http://www.shroomery.org/forums/sho...rt=1#Post675939 or http://www.sporeworks.com/newpictures/Wild...d%20Australian/ [This message has been edited by bluemeanie (edited 14 June 2002).]

id be very interested in a trade of a print for seeds - email me at [email protected]

We once found a type of Mycena (generally not poisonous) that stained blue/black at the base - but a bioassay of the mushroom gave no noticable effect and it did not have the bitter taste/smell often associated with Psilocybin bearing fungi. There are a number of genus that do have reports of both blue staining and high toxicity - be careful. There was a guy recentally selling cultures of a glowing mushroom's mycelia on the Shroomery

hi reville - i have a wild print of Hy. Capnoides that i have just streaked - ill let you know as soon as they germinate or i can send you the rest of the wild print of that or Lepista Nuda if your interested. Mixed reports on Capnoides - should be easy to fruit, but some people say its bitter - others say is great... Great Shiitake culture btw - going very well - ive got about six dishes out of it.

Sure - my edibles currently ready to go in culture form are Oysters, Reishi, Shiitake (wamr and normal). Pink Oysters (p.Djamor), Shemiji (thanx to reville!), Lepista Nuda and Hyd. Capnoides soon.

Due to a recent email that has concerned me, i have decided to stop trading these items indefinately I also have a number of ediblesim willing to trade - Lepista Nuda, Shiitake, Shiitake warm weather, a few oysters, hyd. Capnoides etc... [This message has been edited by bluemeanie (edited 29 June 2002).]

Recentally quarantine wrote me a nasty leter asking me why i waas trying to import cultures of 'prohibited' mushrooms species - i did not reply - the rest of the letter just explained to me the reasons why I would not be receiveing the package and 'to contact my supplier and explain that these items are prohibited in Australia'. Ive been importing spores in letters for ages - never had a problem - even when some American wanker actually wrote on the back of the envelope the genus of the mushrooms inside. So id say youve gotta be unlucky.

The worms and bugs are bastards! Fan dry them if they show signs of nasties and then use dessicant - the bug and worms die really quickly. Or just leave the old ones

mmm...That was a lotta Kava! yum!

Im sure that Dutchie will come through in the end! If they dont have the time there are a number of aussie willing to take over the business.

Alkaloid content is variable between fruits but the same in the cap or stem of the fruit. Mycelia reaches its peak of alkaloid production just before and during the development of primordia.