Biology:Psilocybe weraroa
| Psilocybe weraroa | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Basidiomycota |
| Class: | Agaricomycetes |
| Order: | Agaricales |
| Family: | Hymenogastraceae |
| Genus: | Psilocybe |
| Species: | P. weraroa
|
| Binomial name | |
| Psilocybe weraroa Borovička, Oborník & Noordel. (2011)
| |
| Synonyms[1] | |
|
Secotium novae-zelandiae G.Cunn. (1924) | |
Psilocybe weraroa, formerly Weraroa novae-zelandiae, is a secotioid fungus in the family Hymenogastraceae.[2] It is endemic to New Zealand, where it grows in native forests from rotting wood and woody debris.[3] Despite its pouch-like form this species is closely related to Psilocybe cyanescens and Psilocybe subaeruginosa. [4] As a bluing member of the genus Psilocybe it contains the psychoactive compounds psilocin and psilocybin.[5]
Taxonomy and naming
The species was first described in the literature in 1924 by the New Zealand-based mycologist Gordon Heriot Cunningham, under the name Secotium novae-zelandiae.[6] Rolf Singer transferred it to the genus Weraroa in 1958.[7] Phylogenetic analysis by Moncalvo (2002)[8] and Bridge et al. (2008)[5] has demonstrated the close relationship between Weraroa novae-zelandiae and the hallucinogenic blue-staining group of Psilocybe, particularly Psilocybe subaeruginosa. Phylogenetic analysis published by Borovička and colleagues (2011) showed this species is very close to Psilocybe cyanescens. Given this and the apparently distant relation with other species of Weraroa Borovička et al. (2011) suggested renaming the species Psilocybe weraroa.[4]
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cladogram depicting the phylogeny of P. weraroa and related species of Psilocybe. [4] |
Etymology
The species epithet weraroa is taken from the former generic name, which refers to the type locality. The binomial Psilocybe novae-zelandiae could not be used, as it had been applied to another species in 1978 by Gastón Guzmán and Egon Horak (now Deconica novae-zelandiae).[9][10]
Description
| Psilocybe weraroa | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | glebal hymenium |
 | cap is conical or ovate |
 | stipe is bare or has a cortina |
 | spore print is purple-brown |
 | ecology is saprotrophic |
 | edibility: psychoactive |
Pileus (Peridium) 3—5 cm. long by 1.5—3 cm. wide, roundish, ovate (wider at the base and tapering towards the end, egg-shaped) or elongated and elliptic (tapered at the base and apex with a swollen mid-section), base decurrent (extending down the stem below the insertion) or rounded and blunt, margin folded and often torn, light brown when young, becoming french-grey or pale blue-grey, sometimes pallid green in age, longitudinally fibrillose causing a finely striated appearance, becoming smooth, polished, glabrous, tacky and leathery in age, slowly bruising blue or greenish when injured, drying yellow to dingy brown. Stipe up to 40 mm. long by 6 mm. in diameter, slender, equal in width, whitish to french-grey, bruising blue or greenish with damage, yellowish-brown at the base, initially fibrillose but becoming smooth, polished and cartilaginous in age excluding at the base, hollow, flesh yellow-orange, thickening at the internal apex. Gleba sepia-brown to chocolate-brown, cellular, coarsely shaped, often elongated, laterally compressed, sparse, chambered and gill-like. Spores 11–15(17) x 5–8 µm in size, smooth, sepia-coloured to purple-brown, elliptic-ovate or elliptical in shape, rounded at one end with a thin epispore.[6]
Habitat and distribution
Solitary to crowded on decaying wood buried in forest leaf litter, often on the rotting branches of Melicytus ramiflorus. It has also been found fruiting on rotted cabbage trees and associated with decaying tree-fern fronds, native to the forests of New Zealand.[6]
Fairly abundant in the early winter and spring months in lowland mixed rainforest near Wellington and Auckland. The mushroom can be difficult to see, often buried under leaves or eaten by slugs, and it is sometimes hard to find mature specimens that are not partially eaten.[6] The species is endemic to New Zealand.[3]
Similar species
Clavogaster virescens is similar in appearance and habitat, but the gleba form a reddish brown chambered mass enclosed inside a sack-like structure within the peridium. The stem is stout, smooth and slippery rather than fibrous, off-white to yellow, enlarged at the top where it often smoothly transitions into the pouch, and tapering towards a yellower base. The fungus does not have a bluing reaction; it is naturally blue to greenish blue, and has no psychoactive properties.[6]
References
- ↑ "Psilocybe weraroa Borovička, Oborník & Noordel. 2011". MycoBank. International Mycological Association. http://www.mycobank.org/MycoTaxo.aspx?Link=T&Rec=515728.
- ↑ "Index Fungorum - Names Record". 2011. https://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/NamesRecord.asp?RecordID=515728.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Psilocybe weraroa Borovička, Oborník & Noordel.". https://www.nzor.org.nz/names/bfbbe483-5120-4425-b8a5-a3507d26f43a.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Molecular phylogeny of Psilocybe cyanescens complex in Europe, with reference to the position of the secotioid Weraoa novae-zelandiae". Mycological Progress 10 (2): 149–55. 2011. doi:10.1007/s11557-010-0684-3. http://old.paru.cas.cz/images/laboratory/5/71-2-Borovicka%20et%20al%202010.pdf. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Taxonomy of the fungus commonly known as Stropharia aurantiacea, with new combinations inLeratiomyces". Mycotaxon 103: 109–21. 2008. http://www.cybertruffle.org.uk/cyberliber/59575/0103/0109.htm. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Cunningham, G.H. (1924). "A critical revision of the Australian and New Zealand species of the genus Secotium.". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 49 (2): 97-119. https://BiotaNZ.landcareresearch.co.nz/references/a7ee50bc-f887-4053-84ec-bec301e7f4be. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
- ↑ Singer R. (1958). "New genera of fungi, IX. The probable ancestor of the Strophariaceae: Weraroa gen. nov". Lloydia 21: 45–7.
- ↑ "One hundred and seventeen clades of euagarics". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 23 (3): 357–400. 2002. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(02)00027-1. PMID 12099793.
- ↑ "New species of Psilocybe from Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and New Zealand". Sydowia 31 (1–6): 44–54. 1978. http://www.landesmuseum.at/pdf_frei_remote/Sydowia_31_0044-0054.pdf. Retrieved 2011-07-23.
- ↑ "(1757) Proposal to conserve the name Psilocybe (Basidiomycota) with a conserved type". Taxon 56 (1): 255–7. 2007. http://www.bio.utk.edu/matheny/Site/Publications_files/Redhead_conserve_Psilocybe_Taxon.2007.pdf. Retrieved 2013-03-01.
External links
- “Hey Man, Do they grow any Weraroa around here?” by Peter Werner
- New Zealand Fungi Names Databases - Psilocybe weraroa Borov., Oborník & Noordel. 2011. Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research (2022)
- Psilocybe weraroa observations on iNaturalist
Wikidata ☰ Q7255960 entry
 |  |
