New psychedelic fungus rewrites origins of magic mushrooms

The discovery of a new species of magic mushroom in Africa is forcing mycologists to take a new look at the evolutionary history of the famous psychedelic mushrooms. According to a study published today in the journal B Proceedings of the Royal Societyboth the popular Psilocybe cubensis and a newly described species shared a common ancestor about 1.5 million years ago, but not in the region of the world many thought.

When we hear about “magic mushrooms,” it usually refers to P. cubensis. In moderate and high doses, mushrooms cause sensory hallucinations and altered perception of time. Growing evidence also indicates that microdoses may have extremely beneficial therapeutic uses. Although it thrives in tropical climates and prefers to grow on cow dung, environmentalists have long wondered how it spread across the Americas due to a very specific historical event. Cattle simply did not exist in this region of the world before their introduction by European settlers in the 16th century. Researchers have long assumed that the cows were inadvertently brought P. cubensis in the Americas during the 1500s.

More than a decade ago, clues to this mushroom dispersal conundrum were first discovered. Researchers including Cathy Sharp from the Zimbabwe Natural History Museum have collected the first specimens of a psychedelic mushroom in the southeast African country. Mushrooms look remarkably like P. cubensiswith a yellowish color in the center of each mushroom cap. It is even cultivated for similar uses under the names Natal Super Strength (NSS) and Transkei. But after analyzing a DNA sample, study co-author Breyten van der Merwe confirmed that African mushrooms were not African mushrooms. P. cubensis at all.

“It is one of the most popular magic mushroom varieties, as it is quite potent and easy to grow,” the mycologist from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa said in a statement. “But until this study, no one realized that it was a completely separate species from the classic magic mushroom.”

Cataloged as Psilocybe ochraceocentrata for its ocher or yellow coloring, the mushroom has ecological, chemical and genetic traits very different from those of the species. P. cubensis. Sharp, van der Merwe and their colleagues also traced the origins of both P. ochraceocentrata And P. cubensis. They now think the cattle may not have introduced P. cubensis towards the Americas. Instead, it may have been a meeting of stars: the cows met for the first time P. cubensis It was only after their arrival on the American continent that they then formed a mutually beneficial relationship.

The team cautions that more data is needed – African fungal diversity is largely undersampled – but they have some theories to explain the evolution of fungi. This requires the involvement of both continents. As South America began to diversify millions of years ago, grazing herbivores began to migrate from Africa to Eurasia. This would explain both how the two species of fungi evolved And how livestock contributed to the spread P. cubensis.

If nothing else, this discovery highlights how much there is still to learn about the world’s fungi and how they affect the humans who grow them.

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