A cultivar is the basic category of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants. The main botanical code, the Madrid Code of 2025, says designations for organisms used in agriculture, forestry and horticulture are dealt with in that separate code (Madrid Code, Art. 28 Note 2). So a cultivar is not simply another word for a botanical variety.
In the magic mushroom world the word is used informally. The Fall 2022 Hyphae Cup results table has a “cultivar” column, separate from the species column, filled with names such as Tidalwave and Albino Penis Envy as entrants wrote them (Oakland Hyphae, 2022). A 2021 news report on that contest notes that people often say “strain” where “cultivar” is meant (Inverse, 2021). Research papers vary too: a 2025 study calls its entries “strains” and does not use “cultivar” at all (Cohen et al., 2025).
None of the records the journal checked shows a formal register of mushroom cultivar names. A cultivar-style label tells you what someone called some material. It does not prove ancestry, identity or chemical content.
Sources
- Madrid Code (ICN, 2025), Art. 28 Note 2
- Oakland Hyphae, Fall 2022 Hyphae Cup results (PDF)
- Inverse, 2021: report on the Psilocybin Cup
- Cohen et al., 2025, Scientific Reports (PMC)
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