Are psilocybe mushrooms the only mushrooms that turn blue, or leave a blue spore print?

Question

Is a blue spore print a guarenteed way to know that you have a psilocybe mushroom? Are there any psilocybe mushrooms that will kill you if eaten, other than in high doses? Are there any non-psilocybe mushrooms which leave a blue spore print? And yes, i do intend to trip on them; i just need help with the classification.

Answer 1

there are look-alikes. the blue spores are a good sigh though. if i Had a better description i could tell you if they were good. there are some poisonous look alikes though so watch out!. and did you find them or buy them?

read this.

___The mushroom identifier - David Pegler & Brian Spooner___

Poisonous Fungi

Some species affect the central nervous system causing hallucinations and

sometimes leading to coma.  In the case of muscimol poisoning, also caused

by the Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) and by others such as The Panther

(A. pantherina), the symptoms consist mainly of drowsiness but can be more

serious.  Some of the Psiocybe species, on the other hand, cause visual

hallucinations within 20 minutes of ingestion.  Such mushrooms are sometimes

deliberately ingested for recreational purposesalthough the legality of such

actions varies between countries.

Psilocybe Semilanceata (Stropharia (Strophariaceae)) - Liberty Cap.

A well-known species, owing to its reputation as a "magic mushroom"

Cap: 3/8-5/8 in(1-1.5cm) in diameter, narrowly conical with a central,

        pointed projection, not expandinhg, pale yellowish brown, drying

        to almost white, smooth, sticky, with a darker striated margin.

Gills: adnate, grey-brown to blackish brown, broad and crowded.

Stem: 2-3 X 1/8 in (5-8X0.2-03 cm), slender, cylindrical, paler than the

        cap and often bruising bluish green towards the base.

Flesh: thin, firm.

Spore deposit: purplish black.

Habitat: very common, solitary or in very large numbers, in open grassland.

Edibility: toxic, causing psychotropic poisoning, and consequently has been

        used as a hallucinogen.

Season: Autumn

Similar species: There are numerous species of Psilocybe, and many are small

        and similar in appearance.  The Bluing Psilocybe (P. cyanescens)

        lacks a point on the cap, while P. fimetaria grows on dung; both

        poisonous.

Amanita Muscaria (Amanita (Amanitaceae)) - Fly Agaric.

Perhaps the best-known wild mushroom, having a large, scarlet cap with small

        white scales, and a membranous ring on the stem.

Cap: 2-9 in (5-25 cm) in diameter, strongly rounded the expanding to flat

        and platelike, moist and shiny, with concentric rings of small white

        scales which may become washed away by the rain.

Gills: free, white to pale yellow, broad and rounded.

Stem: 4-9 X 3/8-1 in (10-25 X 1-2.5 cm), tall, cylindrical with as swollen

        base.

Flesh: thick, white, yellowish under cap cuticle.

Spore deposit: white.

Habitat: in small groups, under pine or birch.

Edibility: poisonous, containing both sweat-inducing and mild hallucinogenic

        poisons, which can cause delerium and coma.

Season: Autumn

Similar species: The variety regalis is yellowish brown with yellow scales,

        and in North America, the variety formosa is orange-yellow; both

        poisonous.

        

__The Encyclopedia of Mushrooms - Colin Dickinson & John Lucas__

Mushroom Poisoning - The nerve poisons.

Apart from the cell poisons, the most dangerous species are those which

contain substances that affect the nervous system.  Strictly speaking the

hallucinogenic species also affect the nervous system, but the disturbances

in this case are usually restricted to sensory distortion.  Mushrooms

containing nerve poisons can cause more serious symptoms such as convulsions,

irregular breathing and, in severe cases, death through heart failure.  Two

types of toxin have been implicated in this type of poisoning - muscarine

and ibotenic acid.

Hallucinogenic mushrooms.

The principal toxins in Amanita muscaria have now been identified as ibotenic

acid, and the closely related compound, muscimol.  The Panther Cap (A.

pantherina) causes similar symptoms, also attributed to these poisons but

while this latter species is rightly regarded as dangerous, the status of

Fly Agaric as a deadly mushroom has been questioned.  It has traditionally

been used as a ritual halluginogen in certain cultures and attitudes to this

mushroom would appear to be more to do with cultural background than with any

scientific assessment of it's toxicity.

Psilocybe semilanceata - Liberty Caps.

This small fungus was given the name Liberty Caps because the shape of its

cap is like that adopted as the symbol of the first French Republic.  It

contains the hallucinatory drug psilocybin, and may have been tried by those

seeking new drug experiences.  In a recent English court case it was judged

not to be an offence to possess the fruiting bodies of this species.

Cap: pale clay colour, becoming yellowish-olive or dingy brown. 0.5-1cm in

diameter, up to 2cm high.  Acutely conical, often with a sharp point, never

exapnding.  Margin inrolled at first, slightly striate.  Cutcle slimy,

peeling in wet weather.  Flesh membranous, white.

Gills: finally purplish brown with white edges, adnate, narrow, crowded.

Stipe: slender, usually wavy, up to 7.5 cm long.  Whitish at the top, pale

clay lower down.  Smooth with remnants of viel in young specimins.

Flesh: pliant, tough.

Spores: purple-brown in mass, ellipsoid, smooth, with a germ pore, average

size 13.0 X 7.8 microns.

Habitat and distribution.

Grows gregariously, often in troops, among grass, in fields, pastures, heaths

and along roadsides where animals have grazed.  Frequent to common in Europe

and North America, it also grows in Australia.

Occurrence: August to November.

Culinary properties: It is said to be poisonous when raw, even fatal is eaten

by children.  Harmless when cooked.

__The Illustrated Book of Mushrooms and Fungi - Dr Mirko Svrcek__

Poisonous fungi and the symptoms of poisoning.

Psychotropic poisoning involves serious cases characterized by the irritation

of brain tissue.  For a long time the intoxication caused by the Fly Agaric

was the only form of mushroom poisoning accompanied by psychic disturbances.  

It was not before the 1950s that other so-called cult fungi, formally used in

religious ceremonies and rites, were identified; their ingestion leads to

different manifestations of psychic disturbance.  Two types of psychotropic

poisoning are distinguished: psychotonic poisoning caused by the so-called

mycoatropine, and psychodysleptic poisoning caused by psilocybine.

In Europe, poisoning by mycoatropine is caused by three Amanita species.

Most common are cases of poisoning after eating the Panther Cap, less

frequent are those caused by the Fly Agaric, and practically unknown is

poisoning by A. regalis.  The poisonous content principles of these amanitas

have not yet been exactly identified, and this is why the designation

'mycoatrophine poisoning', though inadequate, is still used nowadays.

The course of poisoning caused by all the three species is substantially the

same: nausea is experienced between half an hour and three hours after

consumption, accompanied by vomiting, headache, quickened heartbeat, and a

persistent dilation of pupils occasionally leading to vision disturbances.

Often the condition of the affected person resembles alchoholic intoxication:

the patient becomes talkative, shouts obscenities, sometimes laughs or weeps,

strikes himself and keeps on running to and fro.  The states of excitement

may be dangerous for the sick person and must therefore be mitigated.  

Subsequently the patient faints, recovers from time to time, hallucinates,

screams, defends himself against invisable danger, etc, but finally falls

into a profound sleep from which he usually awakens into a normal state,

without remembering his previous behaviour.  This poisoning comes to it's

fortunate end on the second or third day.  First aid consists in the

stimulation of vomiting and in taking the patient to hospital; he must be

given neither milk nor alchohol.  The treatment starts with a stomach rinse,

the excitement is controlled by remidies of the cholpromazine type,

physostigmne (never atropine!) is administered as an antidote against

mycoatropine.

Psilocybine poisoning occurs after consuming some species of the genus

Psilocybe, or fungi belonging to related genera about which, nowadays,

abundant literature is available.  These fungi are distributed mostly in

Mexico and in some Central American countries.  They contain so-called

hallucinogenic substances thanks to which they had long been used in

religious rituals and were kept secret until the twentieth century.  Their

research is due to the efforts of the American ethnographers Mr and Mrs

Wasson who succeeded in aquiring hallucunogenous fungi, which they studied

and identified with the help of mycologists.  Chemical analysis of these

fungi were carried out, and it was even possible to cultivate some of them.

The effecttive substance was finally produced artificially, whereby its

experimental testing on volunteers and its application for therapeutic

purposes was made possible.

Fungi containing hallucinogenic substances generally produce small,

inconspicuous fruit bodies growing on dung or excrements.  They belong to the

genera Psilocybe, Panaeolus, Panaelina and Stropharia.  The amount of

effective substances in the fruit bodies is variable, particularly in the

European representatives of the mentioned genera whose effect is

substantially smaller in comparison with the Mexican species.

The psychic symptoms following the ingestion of halluginogenic fungi are

extremely varied.  In some individuals they manifest themselves as euphoria,

in others as sight disorders and hallucinations; saometimes they assume the

form of the kaleidoscopic effect involving the duplication of objects in

inappropriate colours; still other persons, on the contrary, feel anxiety

and fear, suffer from terrifying delusions, and these states may lead to

delirium and suicide attempts.  Thank