SPECIES ATLAS · PANAEOLUS
Panaeolus cinctulus
Named by (Bolton) Sacc., 1887
Psilocybin record: confirmed (several modern analyses)- 1887name published
- 5analyses on file
- 0found nothing
- 2,861world records (GBIF)
- 43Canadian records
A history of a name and a chemistry record, not an identification guide. No name, picture or description can show that a wild mushroom is safe, and poisonous mushrooms are mistaken for magic mushrooms. If someone may have eaten a wild mushroom, call a poison centre without waiting for symptoms: 1-844-POISON-X in most of Canada, 1-800-463-5060 in Quebec. Call 911 if they’re unconscious, not breathing or having a seizure.
How it was named.
Bolton published Agaricus cinctulus in 1792 in An History of Funguses, Growing About Halifax, typified by one of his own plates. Saccardo moved it to Panaeolus in 1887 in Sylloge Fungorum, the name Species Fungorum accepts today. Many chemistry papers use Panaeolus subbalteatus, which Gotvaldová et al. (2022) and GBIF's backbone treat as the same species.
- Named
- (Bolton) Sacc., 1887
- First published as
- Agaricus cinctulus Bolton (1792)
- Other names in the records
- Agaricus cinctulus Bolton, Panaeolus subbalteatus (Berk. & Broome) Sacc. (treated as a synonym by GBIF's backbone), Panaeolus fimicola var. cinctulus (Bolton) Rea, Coprinus cinctulus (Bolton) Gray
- Type specimen
- Index Fungorum gives Great Britain for Agaricus cinctulus Bolton, typified by Bolton's plate 152 (25 June 1789) in An History of Funguses, Growing About Halifax. No physical type specimen is named. (Index Fungorum record, Agaricus cinctulus)
- Name record
- Species Fungorum name record
The psilocybin record.
Every analysis we could verify, oldest first, including results that found nothing. No amounts are given: they vary between collections and this is not a potency guide.
- 1985
Reported Psilocybin reported in Panaeolus subbalteatus, one of more than 100 European species screened; the abstract counts it as the only Panaeolus positive
- 1993
Reported Listed as Panaeolus subbalteatus among Hawaiian species known to contain psychoactive alkaloids, combining earlier analyses with the authors' own; the abstract does not separate the two
- 2022
Confirmed Psilocybin, psilocin, baeocystin and norbaeocystin quantified in 12 fruiting bodies from three collections; the authors note that Stijve & Kuyper (1985) and Stijve & de Meijer (1993) had found no psilocin
- 2024
Confirmed Psilocybin and psilocin detected in mushrooms (identified as P. subbalteatus by morphology and DNA) from two poisoning incidents in Ningxia, China
- 2026
Confirmed Psilocybin production confirmed in a voucher from China (ZRL20200005); one of only two of 14 Panaeolus species tested that were positive
What the record doesn’t show: Psilocin results differ between studies (absent in two older analyses, present in later ones), and GBIF counts mix records filed under two names.
Records on file.
GBIF, the global biodiversity database, held 2,861 occurrence records under this name, 43 of them from Canada, when we checked on October 25, 2026. GBIF held 43 Canadian occurrence records under this name (which its backbone uses to include P. subbalteatus) on 25 October 2026. Records include unverified observations and old misidentifications, so counts show where people have recorded the name, not where it grows.
Sources
- Species Fungorum name record
- Index Fungorum record, Agaricus cinctulus
- GBIF species record
- GBIF occurrence counts by country
- Stijve & Kuyper 1985, Planta Medica 51: 385-387 (abstract)
- Merlin & Allen 1993, J. Ethnopharmacol. 40: 21-40 (abstract)
- Gotvaldová et al. 2022, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 23: 14068 (full text, PMC9693126)
- Yao et al. 2024, Toxicon 247: 107849 (abstract)
- He et al. 2026, IMA Fungus 17 (full text, PMC12835877)
- Bradshaw et al. 2024, PNAS 121: e2311245121 (full text, PMC10801892)
- Wikidata coordinates: United Kingdom (country-level pin)
Compiled from the sources above; last checked .