Australian Psilocybe and their ecology

The past decade has seen a significant turn around in our understanding of the genus Psilocybe in Australia, with passionate citizen scientists contributing to a deepening understanding of ecology and distribution of many species. As a consequence of their legal status, Psilocybe being classified as illegal for containing a schedule 9 substance, species within the genus have been underrepresented in research. With tech savvy mushroom foragers contributing new genetic barcoding data to help better classify a variety of species, and iNaturalist observers documenting their finds, we are able to create a picture of the dynamics within and between Psilocybe species. This talk examines both well known species of Psilocybe, reviewing what we know, and discussing new species being found which have contributed to a dynamic picture of species over space and time.