Gymnopilus validipes

Gymnopilus validipes
Mycological characteristics
	gills on hymenium
	cap is convex
	hymenium is adnexed or adnate
	stipe has a ring
	spore print is yellow-orange
	ecology is saprotrophic
	edibility: psychoactive

Gymnopilus validipes is a widely distributed mushroom of North America and Europe. Gymnopilus validipes contains the hallucinogens psilocybin and psilocin. The mild taste of this mushroom stands in contrast to closely related bitter species. Validipes means "having a robust stalk." Gymnopilus validipes contains about 0.12% psilocybin.^[1]

Description

• Pileus: (4)7.5 — 15(30) cm, Convex to broadly convex, margin deeply incurved at first, becoming revolute with age, dry, fibrillose or with small ochraceous brown scales, pale-yellow or ochraceous buff, flesh soft, whitish, yellowish near the gills.
• Gills: Adnate to uncinate, close, thin, yellowish white becoming cinnamon.
• Spore Print: Orangish brown.
• Stipe: (7.5)10 — 13(25) cm. long, (1.5)2.5 – 5 cm. thick, equal or swelling in the middle, fleshy-fibrous, solid, elastic, fibrillose, concolorous, white within, the cortina leaves only a faint ring on the robust stalk.
• Taste: Mild.
• Odor: Pleasant.
• Microscopic features: Spores (7.5)8 — 10 X 5 — 6, ellipsoid.

Habitat and formation

Gymnopilus validipes is found growing gregarious (in groups) to cespitose (in dense clumps) on tree stumps, hardwood logs and debris, widespread in the United States, common from the Great Lakes and eastward.

See also

• Psilocybin mushrooms
• List of Psilocybin mushrooms

References

• Stamets, Paul (1996). Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 0-9610798-0-0. 
• Hesler, L. R. (1969). North American species of Gymnopilus. New York: Hafner. 117 pp.