Psilocybe weraroa

Psilocybe weraroa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Agaricales
Family: Hymenogastraceae
Genus: Psilocybe
Species:
P. weraroa
Binomial name
Psilocybe weraroa
Borovička, Oborník & Noordel. (2011)
Synonyms[1]

Secotium novae-zelandiae G.Cunn. (1924)
Weraroa novae-zelandiae (G.Cunn.) Singer (1958)

Psilocybe weraroa, formerly Weraroa novae-zelandiae, is a secotioid fungus in the family Hymenogastraceae.[2] It is endemic to New Zealand, where it grows in native forests from rotting wood and woody debris.[3] Despite its pouch-like form this species is closely related to Psilocybe cyanescens and Psilocybe subaeruginosa. [4] As a bluing member of the genus Psilocybe it contains the psychoactive compounds psilocin and psilocybin.[5] It has been cultivated commercially by Rua Bioscience with a view to researching potential medical applications, bringing together its traditional uses in Rongoā Māori with the recent interest in Western medicine into the medical applications of psilocin and psilocybin.[6][7][8]

Taxonomy and naming

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The species was first described in the literature in 1924 by the New Zealand-based mycologist Gordon Heriot Cunningham, under the name Secotium novae-zelandiae.[9] Rolf Singer transferred it to the genus Weraroa in 1958.[10] Phylogenetic analysis by Moncalvo (2002)[11] and Bridge et al. (2008)[5] has demonstrated the close relationship between Weraroa novae-zelandiae and the hallucinogenic blue-staining group of Psilocybe, particularly Psilocybe subaeruginosa. Phylogenetic analysis published by Borovička and colleagues (2011) showed this species is very close to Psilocybe cyanescens. Given this and the apparently distant relation with other species of Weraroa Borovička et al. (2011) suggested renaming the species Psilocybe weraroa.[4]

Cladogram depicting the phylogeny of P. weraroa and related species of Psilocybe. [4]

Etymology

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The species epithet weraroa is taken from the former generic name, which refers to the type locality. The binomial Psilocybe novae-zelandiae could not be used, as it had been applied to another species in 1978 by Gastón Guzmán and Egon Horak (now Deconica novae-zelandiae).[12][13]

Description

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Psilocybe weraroa
View the Mycomorphbox template that generates the following list
Glebal hymenium
Cap is conical or ovate
Stipe is bare or has a cortina
Spore print is purple-brown
Ecology is saprotrophic
Edibility is psychoactive
A cross-section of the basidiocarp.
Fruitbodies.

Pileus (Peridium) 3—5 cm. long by 1.5—3 cm. wide, roundish, ovate (wider at the base and tapering towards the end, egg-shaped) or elongated and elliptic (tapered at the base and apex with a swollen mid-section), base decurrent (extending down the stem below the insertion) or rounded and blunt, margin folded and often torn, light brown when young, becoming french-grey or pale blue-grey, sometimes pallid green in age, longitudinally fibrillose causing a finely striated appearance, becoming smooth, polished, glabrous, tacky and leathery in age, slowly bruising blue or greenish when injured, drying yellow to dingy brown. Stipe up to 40 mm. long by 6 mm. in diameter, slender, equal in width, whitish to french-grey, bruising blue or greenish with damage, yellowish-brown at the base, initially fibrillose but becoming smooth, polished and cartilaginous in age excluding at the base, hollow, flesh yellow-orange, thickening at the internal apex. Gleba sepia-brown to chocolate-brown, cellular, coarsely shaped, often elongated, laterally compressed, sparse, chambered and gill-like. Spores 11–15(17) x 5–8 μm in size, smooth, sepia-coloured to purple-brown, elliptic-ovate or elliptical in shape, rounded at one end with a thin epispore.[9]

Habitat and distribution

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Solitary to crowded on decaying wood buried in forest leaf litter, often on the rotting branches of Melicytus ramiflorus. It has also been found fruiting on rotted cabbage trees and associated with decaying tree-fern fronds, native to the forests of New Zealand.[9]

Fairly abundant in the early winter and spring months in lowland mixed rainforest near Wellington and Auckland. The mushroom can be difficult to see, often buried under leaves or eaten by slugs, and it is sometimes hard to find mature specimens that are not partially eaten.[9] The species is endemic to New Zealand.[3]

Similar species

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Clavogaster virescens
Clavogaster virescens, a close lookalike often mistaken for P. weraroa by foragers.

Clavogaster virescens is similar in appearance and habitat, but the gleba form a reddish brown chambered mass enclosed inside a sack-like structure within the peridium. The stem is stout, smooth and slippery rather than fibrous, off-white to yellow, enlarged at the top where it often smoothly transitions into the pouch, and tapering towards a yellower base. The fungus does not have a bluing reaction; it is naturally blue to greenish blue, and has no psychoactive properties.[9]

References

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  1. ^ "Psilocybe weraroa Borovička, Oborník & Noordel. 2011". MycoBank. International Mycological Association. Retrieved 2011-07-22.
  2. ^ "Index Fungorum - Names Record". Index Fungorum. 2011. Archived from the original on 1 October 2021. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Psilocybe weraroa Borovička, Oborník & Noordel". NZOR. Archived from the original on 1 October 2021. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
  4. ^ a b c Borovička J, Noordeloos ME, Gryndler M, Oborník M (2011). "Molecular phylogeny of Psilocybe cyanescens complex in Europe, with reference to the position of the secotioid Weraoa novae-zelandiae" (PDF). Mycological Progress. 10 (2): 149–55. Bibcode:2011MycPr..10..149B. doi:10.1007/s11557-010-0684-3. S2CID 36050854. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
  5. ^ a b Bridge PD, Spooner BM, Beever RE, Park D-C (2008). "Taxonomy of the fungus commonly known as Stropharia aurantiacea, with new combinations inLeratiomyces". Mycotaxon. 103: 109–21. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
  6. ^ The Tairāwhiti hapū exploring indigenous psilocybin to treat methamphetamine addiction. New Zealand Drug Foundation, 24 May 2023
  7. ^ Dunne R. Māori group receives first psilocybin cultivation license in NZ to treat substance use disorders. Mugglehead Magazine 30 October 2023
  8. ^ Hill N (24 April 2024). "Magic mushroom trialled as rongoa to treat addiction and mental health issues". New Zealand Herald.
  9. ^ a b c d e Cunningham GH (1924). "A critical revision of the Australian and New Zealand species of the genus Secotium". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 49 (2): 97–119. Retrieved 2023-05-18 – via Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research (2004) New Zealand Fungi Names Databases.
  10. ^ Singer R. (1958). "New genera of fungi, IX. The probable ancestor of the Strophariaceae: Weraroa gen. nov". Lloydia. 21: 45–7.
  11. ^ Moncalvo JM, Vilgalys R, Redhead SA, Johnson JE, James TY, Catherine Aime M, et al. (2002). "One hundred and seventeen clades of euagarics". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 23 (3): 357–400. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(02)00027-1. PMID 12099793.
  12. ^ Guzmán G, Horak E (1978). "New species of Psilocybe from Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and New Zealand" (PDF). Sydowia. 31 (1–6): 44–54. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2011-07-23.
  13. ^ Redhead SA, Moncalvo J-M, Vilgalys R, Matheny PB, Guzmán-Dávalos L, Guzmán G (2007). "(1757) Proposal to conserve the name Psilocybe (Basidiomycota) with a conserved type" (PDF). Taxon. 56 (1): 255–7. JSTOR 25065762. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2013-03-01.

Further reading

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