Psilocybe coprophila

Meadow Muffin Mushroom

Order Agaricales, Family Strophariaceae

CAP BROWNISH, SLIMY WHEN MOIST, WHITE FRINGE WHEN YOUNG, TRANSLUCENT-STRIATE

Cap:  1-3 cm wide; convex, becoming flat with age; brown to red-brown, fading to grayish; viscid when moist; margin with white patches when young

GILLS GRAYISH THEN PURPLE BROWN

Gills:  attached; not crowded, broad; grayish brown becoming dark brown with age

STALK NOT BRUISING BLUE

Stalk:  1-5 cm long, 1-4 mm thick; whitish, becoming yellow-brown with age, but not bruising blue, equal, surface often squamulose when young

Ring:  evanescent but often absent

SPORE PRINT DARK PURPLE-BROWN

ON DUNG, MANURED GARDENS & LAWNS

POSSIBLY MILDLY HALLUCINOGENIC

Lookalikes:

Panaeolus sp. -- black spores

Coprinus sp. -- spores liquefy

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Mycologist David Arora calls the meadow muffin a "dung addict." (And I thought my shit-head brother Charlie was the only dung addict in the world!) No dung, no meadow muffin. So, you could encounter it in pastures or manured lawns and gardens. Its dung of choice is apparently the cow pie.  In our experience, a visible piece of dung is required, usually horse manure.

This is one of the few species of the genus psilocybe that does NOT stain blue and, unlike its cousin the magic mushroom, it is not known to be very psychoactive. Some strains may be mildly hallucinogenic, but we know of no one who has eaten enough to feel any effect.

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