Mushroom spore prints serve a scientific purpose as spore print color is a central character in identifying mushrooms. One specimen (NCU-F-0009757) stood out for its strikingly beautiful spore print. Cotter photographed them for inclusion in our online catalog,. Prior to shipping the specimens to Utah, Dr. 1 The genus is most famous as the source for psilocybin, which when ingested metabolizes into psilocin, a potent hallucinogen. Historically there were about 15 species of Psilocybe in North Carolina, but most have been transferred to other genera, leaving only about 5 species currently in the genus Psilocybe in our region. Psilocybe is a genus of gilled mushrooms that are found worldwide. The genus name is derived from the Greek and means вЂњbare head,вЂќ while the specific epithet means вЂњcoming from CubaвЂќ and refers to the type locality where Franklin Sumner Earle described the species in 1906. Alexander Bradshaw, a University of Utah graduate student, is doing a phylogenetic study of Psilocybe and to that end requested a loan of twenty specimens. Van Cotter pulled some specimens of Psilocybe to lend to mycologists at the Garrett Herbarium in the Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah. Such was the case this week when Herbarium associate Dr. Every once in a while a specimen catches the eye of a curator.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) curates hundreds of thousands of botanical specimens вЂ“ fungi, mosses, algae, lichens, ferns, wildflowers, shrubs, trees, and even plant fossils. Van Cotter, Herbarium Associate, UNC-Chapel Hill Herbarium

Psilocybe cubensis spore print