Mushroom Habitat
Habitats of Psilocybin Mushrooms

Many of the points and notes of this section have been derived from the amazing book 'Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World' by Paul Stamets, a leading authority on magic mushrooms and their identification. We whole-heartedly recommend the purchase of this book for your library, as it contains a wealth of valuable information to assist in the finding and identifying of psilocybin mushrooms wherever in the world you live.

Psilocybin mushrooms grow throughout most of the world, and can be found in both fields and forests.  Psilocybin mushrooms are saprophytes – they grow on dead plant material.  Before the impact of the human civilization, psilocybin species were largely restricted to narrowly defined ecosystems.  Many thrive after ecological catastrophes.  Landslides, floods, hurricanes, and volcanoes all create supportive habitats for many Psilocybe mushrooms.  This peculiar affection for disturbed habitats enables them to travel, following streams of debris. As humans destroy woodlands and engage in artificial construction, Psilocybes and other litter saprophytes proliferate, feeding on the surplus of wood chips and refuse, especially in the interface environments, wherever humans, forests, and grassland struggle to coexist.  Since human development seems inextricably associated with ecological disturbance, Psilocybe mushrooms and civilization continue to co-evolve.  Today, many Psilocybes are concentrated wherever people congregate – around parks, housing developments, schools, churches, golf courses, industrial complexes, nurseries, gardens, city parks, freeway rest areas, and government buildings – including country and state courthouses and jails!  This successful adaptation is a comparatively recent phenomenon; in the not-to-distant past, these species were competing in a different environmental arena.  Many of the Psilocybes are now evolving in a decidedly advantageous direction, parallel to human development.  The way these mushrooms have evolved in close association with humans suggest an innate intelligence on the part of the mushrooms.

In Many cases, the collector can zero in on a species by choosing the correct habitat.  For instance, the temperate liberty cap (Psilocybe semilanceata) is easy to find by searching through swampy sheep and cow pastures in the fall.  In North America, this species ranges from Northern California to British Columbia.  P.semilanceata grows in England, Ireland, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Chile, South Africa – in other words, throughout much of the world.  This species has even been reported from New Zealand, and probably grows unreported in other regions of the world. In long-established treeless pastures, the likelihood of encountering a deadly poisonous mushroom resembling a Psilocybe is fairly remote.  However, new pastures – created by cutting back a forest – complicate the general rules about habitats and mushrooms.  Habitats in transition, typically from forestlands to grasslands, will phase in diverse mushroom populations.  In places like the Pacific Northwest, the importance of habitat has to be DE-EMPHASIZED as a key feature.  These complicated habitats  – actually one habitat mixed into another – undergo radical transformations and consequently can easily confuse the untrained observer.  Habitat as a target indicator is a far more useful feature in those environments that have achieved ecological autonomy and stability that those that are in transition.

Since all Psilocybes and other psilocybin-producing mushrooms are saprophytes, they can successfully exploit a broad range of ecological niches and hence are geographically widely dispersed.  As forests are cut and grasslands expand, a new mix of mushroom species surges in response.  During this transitional period, the woodland and grassland species can often be found together.  Housing developments created from cutting back forests are built upon soils rich with wood debris, making this perfectly suited for the wood-loving Psilocybes.  When lawns are installed on top of this wood enriched habitat, lignicolous and grassland species co-occur in the same habitat.  The care humans give to these yards, many with automatic sprinkler systems, are ideal for encouraging the growth of mushrooms.

This is particularly true with Psilocbye stuntzii, a wood-decomposing mushroom from Washington and Oregon.  This blue-veiled Psilocybe frequents football, soccer and baseball fields, and the landscaped areas around schools.  When thousands of students dusted with spore mass leave these sites, they emit spore trails.  This is but one method of dispersal that has proven especially effective in expanding the geographical range of Psilocybe.  Upon germination, veins of mycelium thread paths into new habitats. 

Some species of psilocybin mushrooms are habitat specific.  As difficult as it is to find a truly natural habitat, Paul Stamets has identified 6 distinct habitats in which Psilocybes and other psilocybin fungi flourish.  These are classic habitats, but can often cross over into one another.  Mushrooms atypical of the prevailing habitat can sometimes be found on island ecosystems.  Or, after habitats have been disturbed, the mixed in refuse can create debris fields wherein mosaics upon mosaics can overlay upon one another.

There are 5 major types of distinct habitat that psilocybes thrive. They are as follows

Grassland	Disturbed Habitats	Woodland Habitats
Burned Land	Click an image to learn about Psilocybin mushrooms that grow in these types of habit.	Dung

© Shroom Liberation Front 2007