The Dark Truth About Wavy Cap Mushrooms (Psilocybe cyanescens)
Wavy Caps are both abundant & highly psychedelic. They’re easy to find & hit harder than typical cubes — but there’s a dark side to these shrooms you need to be aware of before taking the plunge.
Psilocybe cyanescens, also known as the Wavy Cap, is a species of psilocybin-containing mushroom that grows on wood.
This saprophytic (wood-loving) mushroom gets its common name from the flat brown caps with characteristic “wavy” edges.
This species is extremely potent and often found in massive colonies. Wild harvests of this mushroom are typically very fruitful.
There’s just one problem… Wavy Cap mushrooms are hard to distinguish from other, highly toxic mushrooms that grow in the same region.
Oh yeah, and they’ve also been known to cause temporary muscle paralysis…
Wavy Cap Potency: 30% Stronger Than Cubes
According to our growing database of psychedelic mushrooms — Wavy Caps, on average, are the 7th most potent species of magic mushrooms. Once dried, these shrooms deliver around 1.24% active tryptamines by weight.
That means you’ll get around 37 mg of active tryptamines (psilocybin, psilocin, and others) per 3-gram dose.
A typical (ideal?) psychedelic dose of psilocybin is around the 20–40 mg range.
For comparison, Psilocybe cubensis (the most common species of magic mushroom, by far) provides roughly 29 mg for the same 3-gram serving.
Here’s the top 10 psychedelic mushrooms ranked by potency:
These potency measurements are only approximations — the exact potency of any given mushroom is heavily influenced by factors like growing conditions and storage conditions.
For example, samples of Wavy Caps collected from the Czech Republic showed phenomenally higher psilocybin levels than samples from other parts of Europe.
Some researchers believe the variation in psilocybin levels in this species could come down to the substrate. The dense Beech forests of the Czech Republic could play a role in fuelling stronger psilocin and psilocybin production in mushrooms living there.
Studies on Psilocybe cyanescens potency:
Beug and Bigwood (1982) — Samples were tested from mushrooms collected in the Pacific Northwest. Researchers noted a huge variation in potencies, ranging from 0–1.68% psilocybin and 0.06– 0.96% psilocin.
Stijve and Kuyper (1985) — Samples were collected throughout Europe. Psilocybin levels ranged from 0.1–0.8%. Psilocin levels ranged from 0.04–0.47%.
Stríbrný (2003) — Samples collected in the Czech Republic showed psilocybin levels between 0.13–1.84% and psilocin between 0.28 and 1.81%.
Where Do Wavy Caps Grow?
Wavy caps mushrooms grow on rotting wood. You can find them in clusters growing out of deadwood logs and stumps, along the forest floor, and even in wooded vegetable bed mulch in city parks and gardens.
You can find wavy caps in all types of forests, but they’re much more abundant in forests dominated by seasonal deciduous trees like beech, alder, maple, and oak.
This species loves the cold and is found predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s very common in forests across Northern Europe, the United Kingdom, and the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada.
These mushrooms start forming their large, wavy caps in the fall and early winter after being triggered by sudden drops in temperature.
You’re most likely to find them between October and December.
The Hidden Dangers of Psilocybe cyanescens
There are a few major issues with these mushrooms you need to be aware of…
The biggest concern with the Wavy Cap is that a handful of highly toxic mushrooms look just like it to the untrained eye. Even skilled mycologists employ specialized identification methods to ensure that the mushrooms they’ve discovered are indeed Psilocybe cyanescens and not something more deadly.
The best way to avoid this issue is to grow them yourself (keep reading).
Another issue that likely can’t be helped is a phenomenon called "woodlover’s paralysis…" a rare but concerning side effect in which users experience a significant (but temporary) loss of muscle strength and coordination.
Most Dangerous Lookalike: Galerina marginata (& Related Species)
The most concerning group of “lookalike” species comes from the Galerina genus. Species of mushrooms within this genus produce amatoxins — poisonous compounds that are unique to the fungal kingdom.
Several Galerina species, such as Galerina marginata, closely resemble young Psilocybe cyanescens mushrooms. They have a similar caramel-colored cap and can develop undulating waves.
The differentiator is the presence of a brown stem with an annulus (a ring-like collar found on the stem of the fungus).
Mistakenly consuming Galerina species can result in severe nausea and vomiting. Most people who experience these symptoms will recover quickly. It’s actually more dangerous if the user doesn’t vomit.
If the body doesn’t respond to the toxins by vomiting and you get no symptoms, they can begin to cause irreparable damage to the liver and kidneys. If this goes unnoticed, things can get rather serious.
If left untreated, amatoxins cause users to feel weak. This weakness gradually develops into a serious illness over the course of several days. The organs will begin to fail and will eventually lead to death.
Other Poisonous Lookalikes: Hypholoma, Cortinarius, & Leratiomyces
Mushrooms in the Hypholoma, Cortinarius, and Leratiomyces genera all share similar traits to Wavy Caps. These mushrooms are less harmful than mushrooms from the Galerina genus — but if eaten in high enough doses can still cause irreversible liver and kidney damage.
A major problem with many of these lookalike species is that they produce a very similar spore print to Psilocybe cyanescens. Spore prints are often used to differentiate similar-looking mushrooms. The color and shape of the spores are telltale differentiators — but this is not the case with Wavy Caps.
Wood-Lover’s Paralysis
There’s another risk associated with Psilocybe cyanescens that you don’t get with some other species of psychedelic mushrooms — a phenomenon called Wood-Lovers Paralysis, or WLP for short.
Although relatively rare, this bizarre side-effect can be extremely frightening.
The effects of WLP can occur within an hour or two after ingesting wood-loving psilocybin mushrooms — including, but not limited to the Wavy Cap mushroom.
Symptoms start with mild muscle weakness and gradual loss of motor control. In rare cases, users experience full paralysis of the limbs.
These effects can last a full 24 hours — though typically, the effects resolve in 3 or 4 hours.
Not everyone experiences this, but enough have encountered the phenomenon for it to be widely discussed on mushroom forums and social media groups. It’s currently unknown why Wood Lovers Paralysis occurs, but there are a couple of theories.
The most likely explanation involves the compound aeruginascin — a compound similar to psilocybin that has been identified in certain Psilocybe species.
The main theory for what causes this involves a compound called aeruginascin — a compound similar to bufotenine (found in psychedelic toad venom) that has been identified (in small amounts) in most Psilocybe mushroom species. Some wood-loving mushrooms, like our beloved Wavy Caps, contain higher levels of this compound than other mushrooms.
Our bodies metabolize aeruginascin into 4-hydroxy-trimethyltryptamine (4-HO-TMT) using the same process that converts inactive psilocybin to active psilocin (a process called dephosphorylation).
Neither aeruginascin, nor its metabolite, 4-HO-TMT, can cross the blood-brain barrier, which means they remain stuck in peripheral circulation.
Both of these compounds are thought to block nicotinic muscle receptors — leading to paralysis of the limbs. This effect has already been reported in bufotenine, which has a similar chemical structure.
There are even a few pharmaceuticals designed to block these nicotinic receptors in muscle tissue in order to paralyze skeletal muscle during surgery (see atracurium and doxacurium).
Woodlovers paralysis is rare, temporary, and has yet to cause any fatalities — but it can be utterly terrifying if you don’t know what’s happening.
Grow Your Own Wavy Cap Mushrooms
The simplest and most effective way to avoid concerns around wild Wavy Caps is to grow them yourself. There’s no worry about misidentification, and you don’t have to venture out looking for them when the temperature starts to get frigid.
There may even be ways to coax the mushroom into producing less aeruginascin by selecting specific substrate materials (this research is still ongoing and inconclusive).
Most home-growers focus on the Psilocybe cubensis species, but there are also plenty of people who opt for the more heavy-hitting Wavy Cap mushrooms instead.
The growing process for these wood-loving mushrooms is outlined in Paul Stamets's book “Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms.”
The book describes how this species effortlessly thrives on wood chips in simple garden vegetable beds — an attractive trait for the mushroom connoisseur who wants to cultivate psychedelic shrooms outside.
You can also grow these mushrooms inside using the wood chip formulation outlined in Stamets’ book.
→ You Can Order Wavy Caps Spores From Innoculate the World
Keep Reading: Learn How to Grow Magic Mushrooms
Learn More About Magic Mushrooms
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