Conocybe cyanopus

Bluefoot Conocybe

PalearcticNearctic

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Small, fragile psilocybin-producing mushroom of well-watered grass and moss. Very easy to overlook and very easy to confuse with several deadly Conocybe and Galerina species — included here for taxonomic completeness rather than as a recommendation.

ECOLOGY & HABITAT

Grass, moss, and lawn margins across the temperate Northern Hemisphere from late spring to autumn.

Distribution

EuropeNorth AmericaNorthern Asia

CULTURAL CONTEXT

The genus Conocybe contains several lethally toxic species (notably C. filaris, which contains amatoxins). Identification at the species level requires microscopy and is not something to do casually.

REFERENCES

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Stamets 1996

Kin & neighbors

Semi-aquatic perennial herb with intensely aromatic rhizomes containing α- and β-asarone. Distinguished from sweet flag's many lookalikes by the characteristic spicy-bitter scent. Among the most globally distributed sacred plants of antiquity, named in Egyptian, Greek, Vedic, and Chinese pharmacopoeias.

Close relative of the fly agaric whose tan-brown cap conceals a substantially higher concentration of ibotenic acid and muscimol — making it both more potent and more dangerous than A. muscaria.

MuscimolIbotenic Acid

European perennial whose glossy black berries and dull-green leaves contain a lethal cocktail of tropane alkaloids — long associated with witchcraft, flying ointments, and Atropos, the Greek Fate who cuts the thread of life.

AtropineHyoscyamineScopolamine

Widespread Eurasian toad whose parotoid secretion contains bufotenine, bufotalin, and other bufadienolides at lower concentration than Rhinella marina. Of more historical and cultural than pharmacological interest — repeatedly named in early-modern European witch-trial confessions and herbals as an ingredient in flying ointments and brews.

Bufotenine

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