This magic mushroom can kill
- Researchers at the University of Florida discovered that Galerina indica, a tiny fungus found in a central Florida wetland in 2025, is the first known mushroom species to produce both hallucinogenic psilocybin and deadly amatoxin.
- Dubbed "dark magic mushrooms," a full-grown cluster of G. indica caps can fit on a human thumbnail and exhibits blue bruising—a common indicator of psilocybin—alongside a newly identified form of amatoxin named alpha-proamanitin.
- Alongside G. indica, researcher Andrew Kunik identified two related, previously unnamed species:
- Galerina species 1 produces psilocybin without amatoxin.
- Galerina species 2 produces neither compound.
- Full DNA sequencing confirmed that G. indica possesses the genes for both chemicals, likely acquired through horizontal gene transfer (DNA swapping with other species).
- Evolutionary analysis suggests amatoxin production was an ancestral trait retained by G. indica (and later lost by species 1 and 2), whereas psilocybin genes were obtained either independently or via a shared ancestor.
- The discovery challenges the conventional foraging assumption that mushrooms produce either hallucinogens or lethal toxins, highlighting greater chemical diversity in fungi and serious risks for wild mushroom foragers.