2011 Cubes

[dollarjuice]

Hey guys here in south-east QLD we have had some serious heavy rainfall the past week or two. Wondering if the heavy rain combined with the temps starting to heat up could trigger the start of the cube season? Has anybody else along the NSW far north coast got any action yet?

Driving home today I passed a small paddock with some cows in it that I previously hadn't even realised was there (this being the gold coast and all it's pretty rare to see some cow farmers).

I was just curious exactly how others ask for permission to have a peruse of their paddocks? I'm obviously not some idiot looking for a quick high but am afraid that because I'm quite young my appearance may come off as such. Any advice?

If anything comes of it I'll be sure to post some photos and possibly grab a spore print or 3.

EDIT: Would you look at that 100 posts

Edited September 1, 2011 by dollarjuice

[∂an]

yeah I was thinking the same thing as I was on my way to the airport last week, and had a look at a reliable spot north of bris - but looked like it would need another few weeks of rain at least for any cubes. there were cubes and meanies up until june this year, so maybe the start of the season will be pushed back a bit. mountainous areas on the NSW border would be definitely worth a look tho, that area defies all rules...

the one time I asked a farmers permission to pick mushrooms this is how the convo went:

M: "Hi there, did you know you have hundreds of mushrooms growing in your paddock?"

F: "Yeah, those damn kids come sneaking around at 3am scaring the shit out of me. I've blasted my shotgun off a few times but they keep coming back."

M: "Oh shit thats no good. How about I spend 30mins cleaning them out for you?"

F: "Hmm well you don't really look like a wild type... so long as you steer well clear of the herd and out of here in 30minutes, I'm happy."

M: "Thanks mate!"

Easy as that.

[Dolos]

I'm obviously not some idiot looking for a quick high but am afraid that because I'm quite young my appearance may come off as such.

 

that's what we all say......Kalika is right though...best to ask first if you can....I've had a shot fired over my head once and its pretty scary. I was only picking edibles at the time but as the guy reminded me..they were HIS edibles

Had a nice feed of mushrooms picked locally last night....cubes though? no such luck but I feel a good season upon us given they are now predicting higher than average rainfall.....

good luck with your hunt and stay safe.....

[dollarjuice]

It's my every intention that if I can't get permission then to just find another spot, and I suppose you're right Dolos that is what they all say.

[El Presidente Hillbillios]

Take a girl with you when you ask, looks less sus then and most farmers wont say no to a young girl LOL

[dollarjuice]

That is so wrong, but at the same time such a brilliant idea and easily possible as I'm sure my girlfriend would love to come for a wonder in some pretty fields. Thanks HB

[Wameron36]

Perhaps a camera or something could be helpful also.

I know it's saved my but before. We had a farmer yell out and his dogs come at us, though managed to talk to him and explained I had been following a water dragon along the little creek that was beside us and was trying to photograph that. Luckily I had actually taken some photos of a dragon from there and some other reptiles and showed him. All was good from that point on and he was quite happy to let us stay.

[El Presidente Hillbillios]

but you were still trespassing on his land, that will never get you off on the right foot. If you asked me i would have no problem with mostly anyone wandering round my paddocks, but if i found someone wandering round it would be a difrent story no matter what the reason is..

Ask first and promise to do the right thing. No climbing over wire fences and open gates left open, closed gates left closed. Watch out for stock and generally be respectful of someone land, after all it is their home and may have been for generations. Most farmers wont have any issue

[dollarjuice]

Had a good look around a couple of well known areas on the far north coast of NSW on the weekend, nothing interesting was found.

I think it's still a few weeks, maybe a month or so, too early.

[∂an]

yeah last year the 'season' seemed to be late october to early may, with only a few spotted either side of this.

[FancyPants]

If you get a farmer with an attitude (after asking his permission first obviously), you could perhaps say you get cluster headaches and shrooms work the best at dissipating and preventing attacks. He could easily verify your claim by looking at the web.

[∂an]

or better still avoid the issue of farmers altogether by not looking on private property. in SE QLD there are many forests with hiking trails where cattle are grazed.

[El Presidente Hillbillios]

patches of common land are always good if you have any up there. Lost of stock from difrent places, means lots of spores spread around

[Mr_PinK]

for most id say season will be pushed back a wii bit

[fractalreality]

Had a look in a few spots on the north coast nsw yesterday but no luck, very sad as I used up my last spre print in feb! Any one on the gold coast want to trade some cactus to help me get back into my microscopy??

[Undercover Hippie]

A friend has been walking around the hills lately and found a few of these popping up - probably found 15 or so over the course of 2 walks which were not even intentional hunts. Is anyone else finding these guys or did my friend just happen to be in the right place at the right time? Just curious as to how everyone else is fairing...

As a side note as my friend is not a mycologist, all specimens were growing from poo, had gold tops, stained blue and had deep purplish grey to nearly black gills - except one specimen which had very pale gills, which was identical in all other regards. He was telling me that he was under the impression this was just a younger specimen - is this a valid assumption?

Here's a dodgy pic from a dodgy phone:

Somewhat linking to the slight confusion caused by the variance in gill colour is a final question. Do Psilocybe Cubensis have any nasty look-a-likes? My friend has asked people who deal with these mushrooms on a number of occasions never to be given a straight answer. He has also searched the WWW which still left him without a clear answer, just more of the typical warnings when dealing with mushrooms. This leads him to believe that there is indeed no evil twin for Psilocybe Cubensis, reinforced by the fact that even casual browsing, not dedicated searching will uncover the "Gallerina/Sub" dilemma.

After all that, is the fact that there is no easily obtainable answer to his question in fact the real answer? i.e. no look-a-likes

Cheers

[∂an]

^^^ looks cubic to me, based on the yellow with white colouring, sexy curve of the stem and bluing at the base of the stem where u must have picked it. I have found that under abnormal growing conditions (ie early or late in the season) the gills can be quite pale. also this one looks like its a day or two past its prime and many of the spores may have already fallen. another example of a cube with pale gills:

there are other possibly dangerous mushrooms that grow out of cow dung in the same season as cubes, but none that I am aware of that have the same yellow/white colouring and stain blue. To be sure, I would tear a bit of the stem off, crush it, and watch for the blue oxidation reaction. hope you guys get lots of rain over the summer and lots of shrooms to photograph! jealous.

Edited November 14, 2011 by kalika

[Distracted]

Those pale gills don't look right to me, could just be a sterile fruit though so the spores don't discolour the gills like they normally do.

[Hyphal]

Pretty sure its a sterile cube, but white gills always freak me out.

[Undercover Hippie]

Cheers for the replies

In the mean time I've been doing a little more searching - found a good source for the desricption of a cubensis' life cycle and colouration but do you think I can find it again - f@$k!

Anyways - Shroomery always comes through and they've got this to say:

"GILLS: Close, adnate to adnexed or seceding to free; pallid, soon becoming gray, then deep purple-gray to nearly black; edges whitish."

Pallid meaning:

pal·lid

adj.

1. Having an abnormally pale or wan complexion

2. Lacking intensity of color or luminousness

3. Lacking in radiance or vitality; dull

from: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pallid

So the poor little fella might of just been pallid - he's long since been thrown away anyways...

Lucky there's plenty more!

Here's some more pics:

In short, from what I can tell, once you know what a cubensis looks like you're not going to run into any real trouble. But there's more info to follow if you feel like a read. Most of you Mycologists out there would have known this when you were 3 years old But it might be useful for some.

PS Before the ID'ing info I thought I’d post this here quickly there is no official home for it anymore, for any mycophiles to see - maybe I’ll chuck it in Seed and Plant exchange later if there’s a few left.

I’m no entrepreneur; this isn’t some money spinner at other people’s expense – just offering some prints to anyone who wants one whilst trying to recover some expenses…

“What expenses – it’s a print!?!” I hear you say

During the course of finding these I went through a couple of tanks of petrol, a lost set of keys (damn it!!!), some serious workouts trudging around looking through grass, some sunburn and a whole heap of time! Add to that the foil, the envelopes and the stamps that may well be involved and I’m probably still losing money 

So in short anyone who wants a wild collected print for microscopy you can have one for a nominal fee of $10, send me a PM – seeing the prints in person, especially the colouration has helped me immensely in fungal identification and I don’t think $10 is too much to ask for anyone who’s keen on increasing their knowledge base. If you can’t afford $10 and you’re still really desperate send me a PM anyways and we’ll see what we can do ;)

In saying that I got my first print for nothing, so the first person to post a cool inspiring quote from somewhere get's one for nothing.

WARNING: Boring Info

As for cubensis look-a-likes, this is global information and probably not relevant to my location but here it is anyway:

"Almost any LBM (Little Brown Mushroom) can be mistaken carelessly for a Psilocybe - with potentially disastrous results! A good spore print is crucial, as it will eliminate the brown spored genera (Galerina, Inocybe, Conocybe etc.), which contain many poisonous species. Among the dark-spored genera, Coprinus has deliquescing gills, Psathyrella typically has a non-viscid cap and never stains blue, Panaeolus species with a viscid cap grow on dung and have black spores, and Hypholoma (= Naematoloma) and Stropharia species are usually brightly coloured, while the cap colour in Psilocybe (with the notable exception of P. cubensis) is typically some shade of brown, gray, or buff. "

From: http://www.shroomery.org/9465/Psychoactive-Mushroom-Species

Coprinus

Means living on dung, however deliquescence means that a few hours after collection, the gills will begin to slowly dissolve into a black, inky, spore-laden liquid - cubensis won't do that.

None that I could find look even remotely like cubensis, the one the very remotely kinda not really does look a little like cubensis if you're drunk "typically grow in clusters on or near rotting hardwood tree stumps or underground tree roots" and in any case "The fruit bodies are edible before the gills blacken and dissolve"

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprinellus_micaceus

Most notably this line "Panaeolus species with a viscid cap grow on dung and have black spores" i.e similar habitat and spore colour to cubensis.

However,

Panaeolus africanus - as the name suggest grows on hippopotamus and elephant dung in africa.

Panaeolus castaneifolius - doesn't grow in dung, not poisonous

Panaeolus papilionaceus - grows out of dung but habitat is north america and "Many collections have been eaten and found to be inactive, with no active collections that I am aware of." i.e. not poisonous.

Panaeolus subbalteatus - commonly used psychedelic mushroom with a variety of habitats including dung.

all from the shroomery: http://www.shroomery.org/9465/Psychoactive-Mushroom-Species

As for the bright coloured species:

Hypholoma

"The genus is widespread throughout the world and its best known representatives grow on dead wood, whilst some others grow in moss, sometimes on moors" My link

No mention of toxicity.

Stropharia

"Spore print color is generally medium to dark purple-brown with white edge at maturity, except for a few species that have rusty-brown spores"

and

"The psychedelic mushroom, formerly known as Stropharia cubensis, has been reclassified into the genus Psilocybe by mycologist Rolf Singer, hence in some references it is referred to as Psilocybe cubensis.[3] It bears a superficial resemblance to Stropharia with its relatively large size, well-developed annulus, and dark spores; however, it is simply a large-size example of the bluing Psilocybe and hence is not a close relative of Stropharia."

OK - that's what not to look for - as for what to look for just go here to start with:http://www.shroomery.org/9567/Psilocybe-cubensis

The End

PPSS I can't be the only one finding these things - someone chuck some more pics up ;)

Edited November 18, 2011 by Undercover Hippie

[∂an]

nice fresh specimens man, like the pics wild cubensis are the shit (or maybe thats in the shit), don't let those victorians tell you otherwise

good on you for being a bit entrepreneurial too!

[Amazonian]

 

I don't see any veil remnant on the stem of that mushroom?, isn't it usually obvious on a P cubensis ?

[Distracted]

mmmm undercover hippie those are definitely some nice yummy cubes

if you want to remain undercover i'd take down the photo of you and your watch and take off identifying features like watches/rings when taking photos in the future.

"GILLS: Close, adnate to adnexed or seceding to free; pallid, soon becoming gray, then deep purple-gray to nearly black; edges whitish."

Technically the gills are always pallid but as spores drop they also stick to the gills and slowly discolour them to the colour of the sporeprint. The longer a mushroom is left the darker the gills as more spores stick to them. There are a few exceptions. If the fruit is sterile it won't produce spores and thus the gills will remain unicolour. If the fruit is not exposed to a high RH the spores won't be able to dislodge and thus the gills will remain unicolour too.

Just some field observations

[∂an]

On 18/11/2011 at 5:29 PM, Amazonian said:

I don't see any veil remnant on the stem of that mushroom?, isn't it usually obvious on a P cubensis ?

The remnant veil was not visible from that angle.

Given that this mushroom grew in july I would say the spores have not dropped due to low humidity (if distracted's comments are correct - RH = relative humidity yeah?)

Edited December 29, 2017 by ∂an

[Undercover Hippie]

Thank you Distracted, it's always refreshing to be exposed to a good dose of knowledge obtained through experience, there's nothing better IMO! Makes me feel like a Mycological midget, and call me strange but I like it

For the record I fell in the creek on the way back to my transportation and the fake Rolex has long since been placed in the bin!!!! Stopped working straight away If anyone ever gets a Rolex - get a real one!

PS The mushroom in that pick is way too pretty to take down

Cheers