Psilocybe serbica is a species of mushroom in the familyStrophariaceae. The mushroom contains the compoundpsilocybin. It is closely related to Psilocybe cyanescens, although the latter has a strong farinaceousodor and taste and is not translucent-striate when moist. It was reported as new to science by Meinhard Moser and Egon Horak in 1969. Molecularanalysis published in 2010 has shown that P. serbica is the same species as Psilocybe bohemica described by Šebek in 1983, Psilocybe arcana described by Borovička and Hlaváček in 2001, and Psilocybe moravica by Borovička in 2003.
Description
Psilocybe serbica has no specific smell, taste is usually bitterish. It is a very variable species. Its cap is 2–4 cm in diameter and obtusely conical, later becoming or. It expands to broadly convex or plane in age and is incurved at first then plane or decurved with age. The cap is buff-brown to dingy orangish-brown and pale ochraceous when dry. It is smooth, hygrophanous, and slightly translucent-striate when moist but not viscid and without a separable gelatinous pellicle. The flesh is whitish to cream-colored, bruising blue when injured. Spores are purple-brown, ellipsoid, slightly flattened, and thick-walled, with a distinctgerm pore. The size is very variable, mostly 10–13 × 6–7.5 μm, but also much longer. The gills are to and close, often distinctly. They are initially light brown, becoming dark brown with age with a purpletint, the edges remaining paler. The stipe is 4.5-8 cm by 2–10 mm. It has an equalstructure, slightly enlarging at the base. It is whitish with a silky gloss and glabrous, or with some whitish remnants of the fibrillose veil.
Habitat
Psilocybe serbica is found growing mostly in groups, on well decayed deciduous and coniferous wood, and along urtica spp. or rubus spp. on twigs, compost, plant residue, in forests, usually in moist places along creeks, forest path and roadside verges. Not reported to be synanthropic.
levels in this species were found to vary between 0.11% up to 1.34% by dry weight. The content of baeocystin and psilocybin was highest in the caps of the mushrooms.
