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SPECIES ATLAS · PANAEOLUS

Panaeolus papilionaceus

Named by (Bull.) Quél., 1872

Psilocybin record: not detected (two modern analyses; no positive report found in the sources read)

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.

Bulliard described Agaricus papilionaceus in 1781 in Herbier de la France, typified by his plate. Quélet moved it to Panaeolus in 1872; it is the type species of the genus. He et al. 2026 note that P. campanulatus, P. retirugis and P. sphinctrinus are widely used synonyms.

Named
(Bull.) Quél., 1872
First published as
Agaricus papilionaceus Bull. (1781)
Other names in the records
Agaricus papilionaceus Bull., Panaeolus campanulatus (L.) Quél., Panaeolus retirugis (Fr.) Gillet, Panaeolus sphinctrinus (Fr.) Quél.
Type specimen
France: Bulliard's name is typified by his plate (Herbier de la France, Tab. 561, fig. II), per Index Fungorum. (Index Fungorum record, Agaricus papilionaceus; pin = Wikidata coordinates (Q142))
The pin marks the type locality at the level of detail the record gives: one historical collection, not a range or a place to look. Land outlines: Natural Earth.

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.

  1. 2022

    Not detected No psilocybin, psilocin or related tryptamines in two fruiting bodies from one collection; the authors say negative data had been published earlier

    Method: UHPLC-MS/MS. Gotvaldová et al. 2022, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 23: 14068 (full text PMC9693126)

  2. 2026

    Not detected Psilocybin not detected in a Chinese specimen (ZRL20210652)

    Method: HPLC-MS. He et al. 2026, IMA Fungus 17: e167329 (full text PMC12835877)

What the record doesn’t show: Each modern analysis tested a single collection, and the species is a complex that He et al. 2026 are still splitting.

Records on file.

GBIF, the global biodiversity database, held 20,594 occurrence records under this name, 197 of them from Canada, when we checked on October 25, 2026. GBIF lists 197 occurrence records from Canada under this name (checked 2026-10-25); the records are not verified identifications. Records include unverified observations and old misidentifications, so counts show where people have recorded the name, not where it grows.

See the name on GBIF

Sources

Compiled from the sources above; last checked .

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