Dark magic mushrooms in Florida found to have remarkable double effect if you eat them

Double, double toil and trouble.A mushroom found in Florida sounds like something straight out of a witch’s cauldron, packing an unusual combination of chemicals that could work sorcery on the human body.“There is no species of mushroom anywhere, in any group, that has been known to produce both at the same time,” author and fungal biology researcher Andrew Kunik told Live Science.“So it’s quite remarkable.”The Galerina indica has two compounds: psilocybin — the psychedelic compound in “magic mushrooms” — and amatoxin, the deadly toxin that’s responsible for over 90% of mushroom poisonings worldwide.Normally, these two compounds are found in mushrooms that are distantly related and have never been shown to appear at the same time in the same species.“Humanity’s cultural infatuation with mushrooms has long been bookended by two categories: mushrooms that induce psychedelic experiences and mushrooms that are deadly toxic,” Kunik told Gizmodo.“Our discovery of the ‘dark magic mushroom’ represents an unusual convergence of worlds, where we now know of this rare and unusual species that produces the chemistry responsible for both properties.”Kunik’s team wanted to learn more about a large group of mushrooms called “little brown mushrooms,” hoping to find one that could produce amatoxins.

There’s another member of the Galerina family, Galerina marginata or “funeral bell,” that’s known to contain this deadly toxin.The team collected a few specimens in this family, including Galerina indica.“We noticed that this mushroom’s flesh turned blue when handled, which is sometimes associated with psilocybin production,” Kunik told Gizmodo.

A chemical analysis confirmed this.The researchers believe that amatoxin production was already established, and the mushroom picked up psilocybin genes through “horizontal gene transfer.”This is when an organism passes genes to another, but not through the typical direct transfer of ...