Wild species

Subaeruginosa

Psilocybe subaeruginosa

aka Subs · Psilocybe australiana · Psilocybe eucalypta

The dominant wild psilocybin mushroom of southern Australia and New Zealand — a wood and litter decomposer found in native eucalypt forest, pine plantations, and urban parkland, with psilocybin content that varies widely between collections.

Field marks

Caramel cap fades to yellow
Veil remnants on cap margin
Greenish-blue staining
Purple-black spore print
Slender white stem
Fruits after cold mornings

Habitat

Wood debris, buried wood, and occasionally enriched soil in damp sclerophyll forest, pine plantations, and garden mulch across southern Australia and New Zealand. Fruits April to August — Southern Hemisphere autumn and winter — especially after cold, dewy nights.

Relative potency

variableRelative only — this guide gives no dosing guidance.

Lookalikes — read this twice

Deadly Galerina marginata, the funeral bell, shares the exact wood-decaying habitat and a similar brown cap but prints rusty brown, often carries a skirt-like ring, and never bruises blue or green; it contains lethal amatoxins and is the most serious confusion risk here. Sulphur tuft can look similar but has greenish-yellow gills, intensely bitter flesh, and no bruising reaction. Cortinarius, Inocybe, and Pholiota species share the forest floor and include toxic members, making this a genuinely unforgiving habitat for beginners.

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.