Magic truffles vs magic mushrooms: what sclerotia are, what labs found and how the law treats them

People often say “truffles” and “mushrooms” as if they were two kinds of the same thing, or two different drugs. Neither is quite right. The difference is biological first: which part of the fungus you are looking at. It became a legal difference in one country, by a quirk of how a law was written. And it is not a legal difference in Canada at all.

This guide explains what sclerotia are, what laboratory studies have measured in them compared with mushrooms (in relative terms only), why the Netherlands made them famous, and what Canadian law says. It does not describe how to grow, find, prepare or use anything.

What are magic truffles, biologically?

A sclerotium (plural sclerotia) is a compact mass of hardened fungal mycelium that contains nutrient reserves, including carbohydrates and lipids (Wang et al., 2025; Wikidata). Mycelium is the network of fine threads that makes up the main body of a fungus. A mushroom is a different structure: the fruiting body, which the fungus builds to release spores.

Sclerotia work as a kind of storage and survival body. In a review of the soil fungus Cenococcum geophilum, an unrelated species, Wang and colleagues describe melanized sclerotia that resist decomposition by soil microbes and can stay viable for decades in harsh conditions (Wang et al., 2025). Many different fungi form sclerotia, so the word names a structure, not a group of related species.

A few Psilocybe species are known to form them. The 1978 paper that named Psilocybe tampanensis says that, up to then, sclerotia in Psilocybe had been reported for three species: P. mexicana, P. caerulescens and P. tampanensis. It notes that sclerotia of P. mexicana had been produced in culture in the 1950s, and that Guzmán had reported them in wild conditions in P. caerulescens (Guzmán and Pollock, 1978). A 1958 French paper by Heim, Hofmann and colleagues dealt with how fruit bodies and sclerotia form in cultures of P. mexicana (Heim et al., 1958). For how those two species were named, see our references on Psilocybe tampanensis and Psilocybe mexicana.

Are magic truffles real truffles?

No. In mycology a truffle is a fruiting body that stays entirely underground. Kennedy and colleagues describe truffles as the belowground sporocarps (spore-producing bodies) of certain ectomycorrhizal fungi, which have lost the ability to shoot their spores into the air and depend on animals that dig them up and eat them to spread (Kennedy et al., 2026). Culinary truffles belong to this group.

A sclerotium is not a fruiting body and does not exist to release spores. It is a dense knot of the fungus’s own threads, packed with reserves. The two can look alike, lumpy and rounded, which is likely where the nickname came from, but the resemblance is skin deep.

What have lab studies found in sclerotia compared with mushrooms?

The basic finding is old. In 1959 Albert Hofmann and colleagues reported that psilocybin and psilocin, the two compounds they had just isolated from P. mexicana, were present in the fruit bodies, in mycelium grown in the lab, and in the sclerotia (Hofmann et al., 1959). So sclerotia are not chemically empty, and they are not a different drug. For how the two compounds relate, see psilocin vs psilocybin.

How sclerotia compare with mushrooms is less settled. The few comparisons we could verify point in different directions:

In 2009 the Dutch health minister told Parliament that a 2002 study by the VWA had found lower levels of hallucinogenic substances in samples of P. tampanensis sclerotia than in the other mushroom species it examined. In the same answer he said that, although sclerotia are a different thing from mushrooms, their effect is comparable (Dutch government answer, 2009). Pellegrini and colleagues, who developed a lab method for sclerotia known as “magic truffles”, found only psilocybin, not psilocin, in the samples they examined, with a wide spread between samples (Pellegrini et al., 2013). A 2024 paper from a German lab, setting up its own experiments, cited earlier analyses in which dried P. mexicana sclerotia reached a higher top value than the species’ fruiting bodies (Seibold et al., 2024).

Why the disagreement? Part of it is basic method. Results reported for fresh material include the water in it and cannot be set beside results for dried material without conversion. Different species, growing conditions and lab methods also differ. And the part of the fungus matters: a 2023 study of Psilocybe found that fruiting bodies preferentially accumulated psilocybin compared with mycelium grown in the lab (Waldbillig et al., 2023). Sclerotia are made of mycelium, but that study did not test them, so it cannot settle the question either.

The honest summary: sclerotia contain psilocybin, the amount varies a lot from sample to sample, and published comparisons with mushrooms are few, small and inconsistent. Neither the word “truffle” nor the word “mushroom” tells you how strong a given sample is. Our guide to what lab potency studies establish explains why a single figure rarely transfers from one sample to another.

Why did magic truffles become famous in the Netherlands?

Because of a gap in a list. In a letter to Parliament dated 19 October 2007, the Dutch Minister of Health, writing also for the Minister of Justice, announced that unprocessed (fresh) mushrooms would be placed on List II of the Opium Act. The active substances in processed (dried) mushrooms were already on List I. One of the reasons he gave was that there is little or no difference in health risk between dried and fresh mushrooms. He noted that the decision departed from the advice of the Dutch drug-assessment body, the CAM (Dutch government letter, 2007).

The listing took effect on 1 December 2008, when 186 species of hallucinogenic mushrooms were placed on List II. In a written answer received on 28 December 2011, the Health Minister said psychedelic truffles, or sclerotia, are not covered by the Opium Act, and that this was known when the mushrooms were listed. She called them legal products that fall under the Commodities Act (Warenwet) rather than the Opium Act (Dutch government answer, 2011). An earlier answer, in February 2009, had already confirmed that hallucinogenic truffles were not covered by the mushroom ban (Dutch government answer, 2009).

The 2011 answer also accepted that some shift from mushrooms to truffles after the ban could not be ruled out. It gave Amsterdam figures for health incidents (ambulance call-outs) linked to hallucinogens, mainly mushrooms and sclerotia, falling from 149 in 2007 to 69 in 2010 (Dutch government answer, 2011). Those are the government’s figures as given; the answer does not separate mushrooms from sclerotia or show what caused the drop.

The same gap reached the scientific literature. Pellegrini and colleagues opened their 2013 paper by noting that sclerotia had become a source of psilocybin because they were not specifically included in laws banning the mushrooms (Pellegrini et al., 2013).

Are magic truffles legal in Canada?

No. Canada has no truffle gap. The Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) lists psilocin and psilocybin, and any salt of them, in Schedule III (CDSA, Schedule III, items 11 and 12). Unlike the Dutch law, it does not work through a list of mushroom species. Section 2(2) says that a reference to a controlled substance includes any substance that contains a controlled substance, and all synthetic and natural forms of it (CDSA, section 2(2)). The law names the chemicals, not the structure that contains them.

Health Canada says the same in plain terms. Under the CDSA, activities with magic mushrooms, psilocybin and psilocin, such as sale, possession and production, are illegal unless authorized by Health Canada, for example through a licence, an exemption or the regulations. The page adds that there are no approved therapeutic products containing psilocybin in Canada or elsewhere (Health Canada; page modified 20 October 2026).

Health Canada’s page does not mention sclerotia or truffles by name, and we found no Canadian rule that treats them differently. Because sclerotia contain psilocybin, as studies since 1959 have found, the wording of section 2(2) means the label “truffle” does not move anything outside the Act. For the full Canadian picture, including the narrow legal routes such as clinical trials and the Special Access Program, see are magic mushrooms legal in Canada? and psilocybin penalties in Canada.

Does the form change the risks?

The sources here give no reason to think so. The Dutch minister told Parliament in 2009 that the effect of sclerotia is comparable to that of mushrooms (Dutch government answer, 2009). Health Canada lists effects of magic mushrooms that include anxiety, panic, confusion, raised heart rate and blood pressure, and “bad trips”, and warns that risks rise when they are combined with substances such as alcohol or cannabis (Health Canada). Its page also notes that the strength of magic mushrooms varies greatly, and the studies above show the same is true of sclerotia.

What we still don’t know

• How sclerotia and mushrooms of the same species compare when measured side by side in one lab with one method. We found no such open study.
• Which species and strains the samples in the Dutch 2002 study and the 2013 study came from, beyond what their summaries state.
• Whether the Dutch government has restated its position on sclerotia since 2011.
• Whether sclerotia carry any risks that differ from mushrooms. No source we opened reports one.

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