When should I expect magic mushroom season to start in UK?

[JohnnyVodka]

Picked ~40 today, most of them a good size.

 

[Limpet_Chicken]

Going to go hunting any day now and see what I may find.

I'm on the lookout for fly agaric mainly, so I can stock up for the coming year, plus peppery boletus, a parasite of fly agaric mycelia, looking for ergot, looking for edibles, and if I find any, of course I'd love some P.cyanescens sporeprints and some liberty caps.

Best finds this year have been the delicious Polyporeus sulfureus, the sulfur shelf, sulfur polypore or chicken of the woods, not to be confused with hen of the woods (Grifolia frondosa) or old man of the woods (Strobilomyces floccopus)

As well as two big giant puffballs (Langermannia gigantea)

Best last year were a whole load of Lactarius deliciosus, some parasol mushrooms (Macrolepiota procera, some of the big Lepiotas, or Macrolepiotas rather, are good eating, small or medium sized ones, must be avoided entirely because many are full of amatoxins, the same deadly hepatotoxins as are found in deadly Galerinas, some Amanitas and Conocybe filaris, plus Hypholoma fasciculare, the sulfur tuft although this, as I mentioned previously also contains some neurotoxins, the fasciculols)

And also, Chlorophyllum molybdites, a large macrolepiota-lookalike is very toxic, although not USUALLY lethal it can and has killed, will at the very least make you wish you were dead a thousand times over. Looks similar to parasols but cap scaling and orientation of the scales is different plus at least older specimens spore print green rather than the white print of the delicious parasol mushrooms. Also M.procera var Rachodes syn M.rachodes var. Hortensis is toxic to some people but not others, as is M.rachodes, M.rachodes is also known as shaggy parasol, whilst M.rachodes var. Hortensis discolors pink, like blusher does when cut and left for a while.

 

[steewith2ees]

Heard first frost forecasted for Midlands tomorrow, if anyone is still umming and ahh - ring about getting out to their spots it's worth just ragging them asap at this point before the weather turns altogether....

 

[Limpet_Chicken]

Just found a bunch, a MASSIVE cluster of what I am pretty sure is a rather rare and unusual variant of the honey fungus complex, Amillaria.

Not A.tabescens, as these have a white ring, Think what I have got is A.polymyces, I just need to examine the spores under the 'scope, will check with my 'scope as it'll show up fungal spores no problem, thing cost me about £200 at least. maybe £300. I forget now, pricy, but extremely high quality with several high magnification standard lenses and optical eyepiece replaceable inserts. Plus oil immersion lens that when I'm using the best eyepieces I have, its close to the limit of what an optical microscope is capable of. Will check spores, and test w a modified Melzer's reagent, using chlorobutanol in place of chloral hydrate as the former is easier to make.

 

[UkSouthWest1]

Hi guys I've actually found myself researching the psilocybe genus (few others too) for hours over the last few weeks and although I've never been on a hunt I'm certain that I'd like to have a go.
I'm living the the southwest of the UK and to my knowledge we get the changes of seasons before the northern regions... Some places do say that psilocybes have been known to pop up in spring and would appreciate some further info as September seems a while away, thanks.

 

[Tranced]

Ello. Not going to happen realistically. I've heard of people on shroomery very rarely finding them in Spring. Those guys are dedicated; if they were about with any frequency, they'd know, and we'd know. Early spring obviously resembles autumn in many ways, and nature may be fooled, but not with any seeming regularity in this case.

I'm unsure what you mean about the SW getting the changes of the seasons before the North (when it comes to colder weather). Maybe I'm just unaware of it but to my knowledge the cold and wet liberty cap weather of Autumn will hit Scotland and travel South. I'd be surprised if the South West isn't warmer on average than the North at that time of year; as a general rule liberty cap season is a few weeks delayed in the South.

Even if the SW has a head lead on the North right now, then that surely just means that Spring has well and truly arrived and the weather is far too warm/dry to see any libs. You're looking at September-November I'm afraid.

 

[steewith2ees]

EDIT: Dont bother reading unless your bored - Tranced's post is miles better but I cannot bring myself to delete my own as it kept me entertained for 5 mins while I wrote it.


Haven't a clue buddy, I'm sure there are species I wouldn't recognise but I know fuck all about Mycology so I only go out in the autumn and raid the libs straight up so I do not poison myself. I suppose I always just saw them as an autumn / winter thing where we would get enough for 3 or 4 good seshes - I remember that couple of years when all the shops were selling the cubensis efforts and that and we got into some right tight spots from doing them all year round, would have probably ended up totally crackers instead of just moderately brain damaged. Only started doing trips again last week - last time was October when I had a cup - a - soup to test the pickings out. I've still got the rest dried - had a synthetic psyche last Saturday so might give them a whirl this weekend.

I'm not supposed to direct you to third party sites as non of us can account for the quality of information, but as well as watching out for an answer on here, google said subject matter and I'm sure there are headcases discussing all that jazz in a similar manner to us, but focusing on the fungus.

As for focus - we have a focus forum for Psychadelic Drugs so you could always have a trawl through there archive as well just in cases... someone has bound to have made a similar enquiry somewhere >>>> http://www.bluelight.org/vb/forums/48-Psychedelic-Drugs

 

[UkSouthWest1]

Yeah, read both. Thanks guys guess I'm just eager. And as for the weather thing I'm not too sure you might well be right I do believe the south I supposed to be warmer but for some reason another forum was on about the seasons hitting the south earlier. I'll just look forward to the coming months, thanks again.

 

[BecomingJulie]

I thought the nearer you were to the equator, the less pronounced the effect of the Earth's axial tilt, and so the less extreme the seasons? At the equator, there are no seasons, whereas at the poles, the sun never even rises all Winter .....

 

[Bearlove]

Were the spores included in the blanket ban or are they still legal to buy for identification purposes only of course ?

 

[herbavore]

I thought the nearer you were to the equator, the less pronounced the effect of the Earth's axial tilt, and so the less extreme the seasons? At the equator, there are no seasons, whereas at the poles, the sun never even rises all Winter .....

We get the dry season and the rainy season (on the equator).