Field guide · updated September 27, 2026
One species, a hundred names
Every named strain below is one species. Psilocybe cubensis, described from Cuba in 1906. What people call strains are cultivars: lineages selected and traded by growers, not taxonomic ranks. Some look genuinely different. Most do not.
Read this first
What a strain name does and does not tell you
- Strain names come from grower communities, not from formal taxonomy. There is no registry and no authority.
- Genomic work has found that cultivars sold under the same name by different suppliers often lack genetic similarity, with low heterozygosity and high relatedness suggesting a history of inbreeding.
- A 2026 controlled study measured a 7.8-fold difference in total tryptamines across fourteen cubensis strains. So potency does vary between lineages. The name on the bag still does not predict it for any given specimen.
- Individual mushrooms from a single flush vary measurably from each other.
The ones you can tell apart
Nine that look like nothing else
Put a hundred cubensis cultivars side by side and almost all of them are one mushroom. These nine are the exceptions, distinct enough that you would know them across a room.
- Fig. 01 Penis Envy, drawn. Commissioned.
No. 01
Penis Envy
Psilocybe cubensis
- Form
- A thick, bulbous stem under a small cap that barely opens. Dense, minimal shrinkage when dried. Unlike anything else in the species.
- Lineage
- Said to descend from an Amazonian collection associated with Terence McKenna in the early 1970s. The lineage is oral history, not documented.
- Note
- The highest measured psilocin in the 2026 fourteen-strain study, at 1.77 mg/g.
- Fig. 02 Albino Penis Envy, drawn. Commissioned.
No. 02
Albino Penis Envy
Also APE
Psilocybe cubensis
- Form
- The same bulbous silhouette with almost no pigment. Pale bluish-white, dense, very few spores.
- Lineage
- A non-pigmented selection from the Penis Envy line.
- Note
- Often partly or wholly sterile, which is why spore prints are scarce.
- Fig. 03 Enigma, drawn. Commissioned.
No. 03
Enigma
Psilocybe cubensis
- Form
- No cap and no stem. A dense, convoluted mass closer to a brain or a truffle than a mushroom. Produces no spores at all.
- Lineage
- A mutation propagated only by cloning, since it cannot sporulate.
- Note
- The most visually distinct cultivar in the species by a wide margin.
- Fig. 04 Tidal Wave, drawn. Commissioned.
No. 04
Tidal Wave
Psilocybe cubensis
- Form
- The cap width of B+ on the shortened, thickened stem of Penis Envy. Caps often wavy at the margin.
- Lineage
- A cross of B+ and Penis Envy.
- Fig. 05 Koh Samui, drawn. Commissioned.
No. 05
Koh Samui
Psilocybe cubensis
- Form
- Short and squat, thick-stemmed, what growers call fatasses. Compact rather than tall.
- Lineage
- Collected on Koh Samui, Thailand.
- Fig. 06 Jack Frost, drawn. Commissioned.
No. 06
Jack Frost
Psilocybe cubensis
- Form
- Albino caps with blue-tinged gills.
- Lineage
- An albino selection crossed into the True Albino Teacher line.
- Fig. 07 Blue Meanie, drawn. Commissioned.
No. 07
Blue Meanie
Psilocybe cubensis
- Form
- Bruises an intense blue where handled. That reaction is the whole identity.
- Lineage
- A cubensis lineage. Note that the same common name is also used for Panaeolus cyanescens, a different species entirely, which causes constant confusion.
- Fig. 08 Yeti, drawn. Commissioned.
No. 08
Yeti
Psilocybe cubensis
- Form
- Ghost white through most of growth, with gold returning to the cap as it matures.
- Lineage
- An albino isolation from Golden Teacher.
- Fig. 09 Gandalf, drawn. Commissioned.
No. 09
Gandalf
Psilocybe cubensis
- Form
- Unusually tall and slender, long-stemmed.
- Lineage
- Grower lineage, undocumented.
Everything else
The golden cubensis
Drawn as an illustration, the following are the same mushroom. A golden to tan cap on a pale stem, bruising blue where damaged. Cap colour and size vary more within any one of these than between them. This is what most people have actually met.
- Golden Teacher
- B+
- Cambodian
- Amazonian
- Mazatapec
- Ecuador
- Burma
- Thai
- Costa Rican
- Treasure Coast
- Huautla
- Z-Strain
- Brazilian
- Hawaiian
- Chitwan
- Kathmandu
- Lizard King
- Malabar
- Orissa India
- Palenque
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Puerto Rican
- Texas
- South African Transkei
- Alacabenzi
- PF Classic
- Pink Buffalo
- Creeper
This is not a criticism of them. Golden Teacher is the most widely grown cultivar there is, and it is what most licensed programmes work with. It is simply that an illustration cannot tell them apart, because neither can anyone else.
Where this comes from
- Exploring Psilocybe cubensis Strains: Cultivation, Compounds, Genetics and Research Gaps, Journal of Fungi
- Colorado Natural Medicine Division
We sell clothing. This page describes what these mushrooms look like and where the names came from. It is not cultivation guidance, not dosing guidance, and not medical advice. Corrections to hello@stipecap.com.
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The strain drawings
Five drawn this year. The list sees them first.