Magic mushroom species list: what each name refers to and what supports it

Most lists of magic mushroom species mix four different things: scientific names, older names, strain names and nicknames. They are not the same kind of claim. A scientific name can be traced to a publication. A strain name usually cannot. A nickname can point at two different species.

This directory keeps those apart. Every entry gives the name, what kind of name it is, and the record that supports it, such as a Species Fungorum name record or a table in a peer-reviewed paper. It is a starting point for checking a name, not a ranking and not a field guide.

To see where the specimens behind nine of these names were collected, and when each name was published, open the species atlas.

What is in this magic mushroom species list, and what is not?

It holds 19 entries: nine species names, one formally published variety, seven strain names taken from a single 2025 study, and two common names. It is not an exhaustive list of species, and it does not try to include every strain name in circulation. A name is here because we could trace it to a record we opened, and for no other reason.

Inclusion is not an endorsement, a potency rating or an identification of any product. No entry gives morphology, because a description is not a safe way to identify a wild mushroom (see the safety note below).

What kinds of name does the directory separate?

• Species name: a two-part name with an author and a place of publication. A registry such as Species Fungorum says whether it is the current name or a synonym.
• Basionym or synonym: an earlier name that a current name replaces. Stropharia cubensis, for example, is the basionym of Psilocybe cubensis.
• Variety: a rank below species that is formally published as a name combination, such as Psilocybe serbica var. bohemica.
• Strain name: the label a study uses for one culture or sample. It is the study’s own label, not a published taxonomic name.
• Common name: a name in ordinary use. Databases such as iNaturalist and NCBI list some, and one common name can be used for more than one species.

For a longer walk through how these differ, read magic mushroom names, species, strains, varieties and cultivars.

Which magic mushroom species names have a taxonomic record?

Each row below describes what the cited record says. It does not show that a mushroom in someone’s possession belongs to that species. The main evidence is the Species Fungorum name record for each species, linked in the table and in the sources list.

Is there a formally published variety among the names?

One entry: Psilocybe serbica var. bohemica. A variety is a taxonomic rank, not a commercial strain name. Treatments change, so the entry records what one registry says on the date checked.

What do strain names like Golden Teacher refer to in a research paper?

A 2025 paper in Scientific Reports by Cohen and colleagues examined 42 psilocybin-producing fungal strains. The authors identified each sample by morphology and, because morphological identification may be unreliable, also by DNA (the ITS region). Table 1 lists the strain name, the morphological species and the ITS result with a GenBank accession (Cohen et al., 2025).

These rows show what those particular samples matched. They do not show that any other sample with the same label is the same cultivar, and they do not make a label a taxonomic name.

Two rows matter most for names. The three Natal strains were identified as P. natalensis by morphology but matched P. cubensis by ITS, and the paper’s text says cubensis and natalensis were both identified as cubensis by ITS. The strain called Mexicana was identified as P. tampanensis by both methods, so in that study the name Mexicana did not point to Psilocybe mexicana (Cohen et al., 2025). The parenthetical “UFO” after KSSS is kept as printed; no wider equivalence is established.

No lineage, origin, potency or effects claim follows from any of these labels. For the two best-known ones, see Golden Teacher mushrooms: the name and the research and Blue Meanies: why the name is ambiguous.

Which common names appear, and what do they point to?

Why do similar magic mushroom names get mixed up?

• A shared epithet is not a shared species. Psilocybe cyanescens (Wakefield, 1946) and Panaeolus cyanescens (Saccardo, 1887) have separate records and different genera.
• One nickname, two referents. Blue Meanies is a common name for Panaeolus cyanescens in one database and the name of a P. cubensis strain in one paper.
• Label versus sequence. In one study, strains named Natal and Mexicana did not match the species their names suggest.
• Names get split or moved. The 2026 description of P. ochraceocentrata came from African specimens first identified as P. cubensis, and Psilocybe serbica var. bohemica now sits under Psilocybe bohemica in one registry.

If you are tracing a story about where a name came from, how to research magic mushroom origin stories lays out a source-first method. The wider background is in what are magic mushrooms.

What does a name in a directory not tell you?

“High confidence” here applies only to the stated fact, for example that a registry recognizes a name. It is not confidence in an unknown specimen, its chemistry, or the identity of similarly named material. Registry recognition, specimen identification and commercial usage are three separate questions, and each needs its own evidence.

How is this directory checked and updated?

1. Each entry records the exact name, the source and the date it was checked.
2. Registry recognition, specimen identification and commercial usage are kept separate.
3. A new taxonomic paper is compared with the existing entry before any change is made.
4. An alias is recorded only with evidence of how it is used, and conflicting usages are kept side by side.

Two checks could not be completed on 4 October 2026: we could not open the iNaturalist guide page, so the Blue Meanies common name rests on iNaturalist’s data feed, and we have not seen a registry entry or the full text for Psilocybe ochraceocentrata. Entries will be updated when a relevant correction or new paper appears.

Shroomverse sells mushroom products. This article is general information about mushroom names and taxonomy. It is not medical, legal or identification advice, and it does not recommend any product.