Wild species

Psilocybe cubensis

aka Cube · Gold cap · Gold top · Golden halo · Bluestain smoothcap

The most widely known psilocybin mushroom and the species behind nearly every cultivated variety you will hear named. A robust, dung-loving mushroom with a pan-tropical native range, it stands apart from most other Psilocybe species by its size and its preference for herbivore dung over wood or grass.

Field marks

Golden-brown convex cap
Central papilla when young
Blues when bruised
Dark purple-brown spore print
Hollow white stem
Persistent membranous ring

Habitat

Grows on cow, horse, and water buffalo dung and richly manured pasture soil across tropical and subtropical regions — the Gulf Coast and southeastern US, Mexico, Central and South America, Southeast Asia, India, and Australia. Fruits year-round in warm climates, peaking in wet seasons.

Relative potency

moderateRelative only — this guide gives no dosing guidance.

Lookalikes — read this twice

Psilocybe subcubensis is essentially indistinguishable in the field, separable mainly by spore size under a microscope. Panaeolus semiovatus shares the dung habitat but does not bruise blue. More seriously, small dung- and grass-associated Galerina and Pholiotina species can occur in the same pastures and carry deadly amatoxins; none bruise blue, which remains the single most useful field distinction — though it is not sufficient on its own.

Deadly species grow in the same places as psilocybin ones and can resemble them closely. Never eat a wild mushroom identified from a website — including this one.