Edit: I have changed the subject as I see my explorations are going beyond liberty caps.

I am fairly new to picking liberty caps, having done it for two seasons before this year. This year I have been searching in a completely different geographical area and I have found these which seem to me to match all characteristics except the nipple... Are there any people out there who know of liberty cap strains lacking a prominent nipple?

Hard to say but I know that Psilocybe strictipes is quite similar, has wider cap often without nipple.

I don't think you have a Psilocybe species in your hand. It looks more like a Panaeolus species.
You could as well photo the mushroom from all angles. A photo of the habitat might help as well.

As far as I know, the spore print of panaeolus is black and the stem is straight. The spore print of this species is in the first photo: purple brown. The habitat is a pasture, full of phalaris :-)

Here is another candidate species. İt has a relatively better defined nipple. Will take spore print tonight. None of the mushrooms I have seen so far match 100% to classic liberty caps. I am just giving them a chance in the light of possible genetic variance.

This was among my thoughts too. The base of the stem could be interpreted as displaying a bluing reaction, but it's not very clear

Before coming to any premature conclusions it would be prudent to seek out as much as you can possibly find of the mycological literature for your locality in order to see what similar species of Psilocybe and Panaeolus you might be likely to find there.


One more thing that will help with your identification efforts is thus: Psilocybes are characterised by having a separable, gelatinous pellicle on the upper surface of the cap. This means that if you carefully break the cap of a fresh, moist specimen and slowly pull the two pieces apart, there will be a thin, transparent, jelly like skin that you might be able to peel off.


All that said, I'm still inclined to gowith Triglav here = the mushrooms do have more of the overall appearance of Panaeolus species.

Yes, I see how the mushrooms in the first photo appear like Panaeolus.

Thanks for the tips. I still have not found liberty caps yet.

A little bit off topic, but I have found this Panaeolus to be pleasantly active. I have not been able to identify it yet. I am taking a spore print now to see if it might be Panaeolina.

dithyramb I cannot say which species you have found. What I can say is that a white stem is a good sign when trying to find active Panaeolus species.

EDIT:
It is possible that you have found Panaeolus cinctulus. Maybe do a bit of research on that species. It may throw some light on your search.

Thanks Triglav. İndeed it looks similar to cinctulus. The strength of around 10 mushrooms was not bad and felt quite healing.

This one looks like a Psilocybe or Deconica.

Interesting how the habitat and size match that of liberty caps.

Do you think you could write a full taxonomic description?

Do the caps have a sticky, gelatinous skin when wet?

The stems look fragile, almost like a Psathyrella.

Have you looked into the mycological scientific literature for your country?

It makes me feel a bit uncomfortable that you're consuming an unidentified mushroom species.

The caps are sticky when wet but I cannot find a gelatinous pellicle. The stems are not fragile. The spore print is black or blackish. Yes I have access to the country's official fungi list. İt matches Panaeolus acuminatus actually...

I have tried eating it after making sure it is not a galerina, conocybe, or inocybe. Black spored Panaeolus is not known for any toxic species and to my knowledge there are no known dark spored lbm's that are toxic. But of course you can never be 100 percent certain that an unknown mushroom species is safe and I don't recommend anyone else to eat any unidentified fungi.

That's reassuring; I'd agree with the closest ID being Pan. acuminatus from the information available. It's just very curious that you report activity from a species not known to be active - or perhaps even to say, known to be inactive. It could be that you've stumbled across a species of practically identical appearance. One more thing to look at is exactly how the gills attach to the stem.

Have you taken a clearly and unquestionably active dose yet? Panaeolus species regularly contain serotonin, 5-hydroxytryptophan and tryptophan - is there any possibility that you detect "healing effects" from these components?

Microscopy becomes a necessity at this stage, as well as presumptive testing for alkaloids.

All-in-all, potentially a very interesting discovery. Perhaps the apparent psilocybin activity relates to the substrate - Phalaris?

Yes, it seems to be unexpected for this mushroom to have activity. I had a very familiar "mushroom spirit" experience - deep relaxation and unusual comfort with socializing, along with an unmistakable yet light altered state. A feeling of clarity and empowerment. As if a microdose of classic psilos. Today I tried it for the second time, this time not directly after picking, but after one day waiting without special effort to dry it... This time it felt less psilo-like and more of a general relaxation and deepening in the body, yoga was very deep. Still I felt unusually connected to nature. I can think of two possibilities - first, perhaps there is psilocybin in this species but it is highly volatile and does not survive waiting a day after picking? Second possiblity - perhaps there is a psychoactivity to exogenous serotonin, and tryptophan and 5-htp etc?

I wonder which Panaeolus this is.

Also, regarding the previous active species, does anybody know the differences between Panaeolus acuminatus and Panaeolus olivaceous? İt seems they are pretty similar, and olivaceous is known to be active.