drunken mushroom

Psilocybe zapotecorum grows solitarily or gregariously, sometimes in cespitose clusters of around a 50 mushrooms. It is found near rivers, creeks and ravines, sometimes growing directly from steep mossy ravine walls. Psilocybe zapotecorum is also found in humid and shadowed places in mesophytic forests, oak-and-pine forests, or cloud forests. Psilocybe zapotecorum is often found in subtropical forests containing Alnus sp., Magnolia sp., Fraxinus sp., Quercus sp., large pines, and blackberry bushes. Psilocybe zapotecorum grows in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, El Salvador, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador.

It is named for the Zapotec Natives, who are native to the Sierra Madre mountains of Oaxaca Mexico, as well as the area they inhabited. According to Richard E. Schultes the Zapotec name translates as "Crown of thorns mushroom". Other sources give the Zapotec name as badao zoo translated as "hongo borracho", "drunken mushroom".

1956: Holotype collected August 4, 1956 in Santiago Yaitepec by Roger Heim and R. Gordon Wasson. 1957: Roger Heim and R. Gordon Wasson describe Magic Mushrooms with illustrations in "Magic Mushrooms" LIFE Magazine May 13, 1957. 1958-9: Roger Heim published the first scientific description of this fungus. Albert Hofmann also finds Psilocybin. 1963: Roger Heim describes this mushroom in the work "Les Champignons Toxiques et Hallucinogènes." 1976: Jonathan Ott and Gaston Guzman publish again about the fungus, but describe it as Psilocybe candidipes.