Welcome to The Spore Works

At Sporeworks.com, we have been closely following the developments with Psilocybe natalensis and have been updating our website’s “natalensis” information as it becomes available. Genetic testing had previously confirmed that our material was distinct from Psilocybe cubensis, but without genetic sequencing of the Psilocybe natalensis holotype it was assumed that it was the same as Psilocybe natalensis. A reasonable conclusion since it was collected in the same location and the appearance was similar. 

Recently, the P. natalensis holotype has been sequenced and found to be different than our material. We knew it wasn’t cubensis and now we knew it wasn’t natalensis. While we waited for a publication to officially name the new species, we temporarily changed our material to Psilocybe aff. natalensis to show that what we had was related to P. natalensis, but different enough to merit its own species designation. And now the wait is essentially over with this preprint of this study “Discovery of the closest free-living relative of the domesticated “magic mushroom” Psilocybe cubensis in Africa” provisionally naming the new species as P. ochraceocentrata. This is a preprint so the name isn’t “official” but we expect it will be a valid species name in the near future.

Many psilocybe spore collectors are now scrambling for “real” Psilocybe natalensis, but it should be understood that all of the current positive reports for P. natalensis (and P. aff. natalensis ) are actually of Psilocybe ochraceocentrata. Currently (2024), there are no readily available sources of Psilocybe natalensis and it is expected that many vendors may not update their “P. natalensis” descriptions to reflect the name change in a timely manner. Eventually confirmed authentic P. natalensis will be available to the community, but for now, buyer beware.

The cultivation aspects of authentic P. natalensis are mostly unknown at this time but we can make some educated guesses on how it will compare to the very popular P. ochraceocentrata based on a few early cultivations of real P. natalensis and the closely related species such as P. chuziongensis and P. psuedoaztecorum.

The image below is the most complete phylogeny I could find on the species of interest. I edited this screen grab to update the new species name to avoid confusion. I found this image on the Myc Check Podcast with Yoshi Amano which is well worth watching for the cultivation results of P. natalensis. I highly recommend. As you can see from the phylogeny, P. ochraceocentrata is very closely related to P. cubensis. It is, in fact, the closest known relative to P. cubensis, which explains its ability to hybridize with P. cubensis. Hybridization between P. cubensis and the more distantly related P. natalensisis less likely.

Unfortunately, it appears that P. natalensis will not be as easy to cultivate as P. ochraceocentrata. Cultivation attempts seen on the Shroomery in 2014 with the closely related species P. psuedoaztecorum from India produced mushrooms slowly and with difficulty, with characteristic top heavy, spindle shaped mushrooms.

The recent cultivation with genetically confirmed Psilocybe natalensis, as seen in the Myc Check Podcast, shows similar spindle shaped mushrooms, which supports the close relationship to P. psuedoaztecorum.

We are going to guess that the difficulty, slow growth and low yield will prevent widespread cultivation by all but the most dedicated researchers unless more domesticated strains are developed. P. chuxiongensis, P. pseudoaztecorum have been circulating around for a decade, but have never become popular. The Myc Check podcast did reveal that authentic P. natalensis can apparently form sclerotia after several months of incubation. Which is exciting and maybe that will make it more desirable.

Happy Mushrooming!

-John Workman