The species discussed below are only some of the more commonly known ones with
hallucinogenic properties. There are recognized among the psilocybin bearing mushrooms:
40 species of Conocybe usually occurring in forests, pastures, gardens, dung areas, sandy soil, ant hills,
decayed wood, and charcoal and having a cosmopolitan range;
20 species of Panaeolus found on soil and dung and having a cosmopolitan range;
40 species of Psilocybe found on soil, moss clumps and organic substrata such as dung, rotting wood, bagasse,
and peat ranging from the arctic to the tropics; and
9 species of Stropharia found on soil, dung and sometimes on leaf mulch and rotting wood and having a fairly
cosmopolitan range.
[Compiler's note: Also note that not ALL psilocybin containing mushrooms bruise blue, the common wisdom is however, if it doesn't blue, don't bother (but then again, two of the most widespread psychoactive mushrooms, Panaeolus Subbalteatus and Psilocybe Coprophila rarely blue).Go back to Table of ContentsReaders from areas not in the greater ecosystem of the Western Gulf of Mexico, or the ecosystems of the North Coast ranges and Cascades of North America should not be discouraged, as teonanacatl has many guises in many places and can undoubtably be found in yours.
Please note that many of the mushrooms described here fall into a category known as <&quo>LBM's<&quo> (Little Brown Mushrooms) or <&quo>LBJ's<&quo> (Little Brown Jobs). I have included here the descriptions of 4 DEADLY LBJ's that often look like teonanactl, although for most, there is a least one characteristic such as spore print color that clearly distinguishes the species.
Also note that several of the species, notably p. pelliculosa, p. silvatica, and p. semilanceata, look at first glance VERY MUCH like some of the mycena group of mushrooms, a common group, with members that grow in all the same habitats that teonanactl does. Mycena can be distinguished however, by their white spore prints, and the gills are usually white, not cinnamon-brown or greyish to dark brown as are the psicylocybe species.
The within species variability for mushrooms, seems to this compiler to be as least as great as the within species variability for homo sapiens sapiens so caution is urged.]
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Gif image files -- pictures of most of these species
Gif images of mushroom parts with terms.
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