Gymnopilus Purpuratus For Sale

Gymnopilus purpuratus is mushroom which grows in clusters on dead wood, tree stumps and wood chip mulch. It is widely distributed and has been recorded in Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, the UK and Germany. It has a rusty orange spore print and contains psychoactive compounds psilocin and psilocybin.Gymnopilus Purpuratus For Sale

Cap/Pileus: 20-50 mm broad, reddish-brown, with small erect scales appearing dense, especially in age, not viscid, convex, obtuse or subumbonate with a slight umbilicus in the center.

Gills/Lamellae: Slightly crenulate, close, rounded-adnexed. Yellow (nankeen to primrose).

Stem/Stipe: 25-55 x 3-9 mm. Brazil brown (brown-red) covered by fibrils. Equal and dusted by spores in age. Context purple, often disappearing, fleshy, developing in most specimens blue spots or areas along the surface where the stems have been touched or scratched. Veil thick and black.Most of the rustgills seen in pine forests and other coniferous plantations in Britain and Ireland are Common Rustgills, and they seem to like one another’s company: find one and you are likely to spot dozens more nearby.Gymnopilus Purpuratus For Sale

Etymology

Gymnopilus was proposed as a new genus name in 1879 by the Finnish mycologist Petter Adolf Karsten (1834 – 1917). The origin of this generic name is the prefix Gymn– meaning naked, and the suffix –pilus which means cap – hence naked or bald caps would be an expected feature of the mushrooms in this genus.

The specific epithet penetrans means penetrating, of course.

Toxicity

The Common Rustgill is inedible and may be poisonous. Certainly several species in the genus Gymnopilus are known to be seriously poisonous, and there is evidence that rustgills from certain parts of the world contain hallucinogenic substances such as psilocybin. We therefore recommend that all fungi in the genus Gymnopilus should be treated as toxic toadstools.

Taxonomic history

The Common Rustgill was described in 1815 by the great Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries, who called it Agaricus penetrans. In 1912 American mycologist William Alphonso Murrill (1869 – 1957) transferred this species to the genus Gymnopilus, thereby establishing its currently-accepted scientific name Gymnopilus penetrans.