The psilocybe semilanceata, aka liberty caps, is a prized mushroom that everyone seems to love. The psilocybe semilanceata’s grow around the world in temperate climates in grasslands where sheep, horses and cows graze. Also on lawns that are taken care of and fertilized with manure. Although this mushroom does not grow directly on the dung, but the dung enriched soil with sedge grass is where it is found in nature. Usually at the outer edge base of clumps of grass. Fescue grass is a common grass to find this species growing in. It’s quite common in the pacific northwest USA and usually fruits in the fall. However this mushroom eludes even some seasoned hunters as it's small and hard to see. This species particularly thrives in Oregon and in Canada, as well as Washington state. As well these liberty cap shrooms grow in many places in the world and this author personally enjoyed a wonderful mushroom hunting experience in the northern Pyrenees mountains of Spain and France to find these prized mushrooms along with psilocybe hispanica. Typically liberty cap mushrooms are found in the fall before the first hard freeze comes, but some places in the world they can found in late spring.

In Spain the semilanceata’s have been part of their culture for hundreds of years and one can find many references in drawings, art and iron works of mushrooms that look exactly like the prized psychedelic liberty caps. Where it’s legal to grow this species, such as Spain, they tend to do well on organic whole brown rice as spawn. Then some growers typically use this spawn in their lawns that are heavily fertilized with cow or horse manure. Although the liberty caps thrive in fescue types of clumping grass, they are found in other grasses too. Although this species is a somewhat fast fruiter, 4 1/2 months on average, they still like those cold temperatures to fruit. Late summer or early fall is the ideal time to sow into laws in hopes of fruits before winter freezes. If nothing happens during winter then spring is when they should pop. This is a cool weather mushroom that fruits in low temperatures around 33F to 50F. Of course growers don't keep their house this cold but garages is a good choice when lawns are not an option. In theory one could put fescue grass seed, or rye grass seed, in the dung based casing soil where the grass will grow and the semi's should fruit. Grass is high in tryptamines and psilocybe mushrooms absorb the tryptamine to create stronger levels of psilocybin. The liberty caps are one of the more potent mushrooms out there, about 2.5x more potent then cubensis. They are a really nice smooth vibe, which is probably why so many people  who have tried them just love this species.  Considering how small they are they it's amazing they can be so potent. The semilanceata’s is not a big mushroom nor does it drop many spores, in fact many of the caps do not drop spores at all with some strains. Our friend Nacho does his best to collect spores for us each year in Spain of this species but due to the windy conditions where they are found typically only about 1 in 100 caps he can collect spores from. We used to have a semilanceata spore supplier from B.C. Canada that was finding lots of semi’s on agriculture fields and he had no problem collecting spores from that strain.  A tip our friend in Spain discovered for improving the odds of collecting semi spores is to keep them close to the same temperature where they are found. Instead of bringing them indoors where it's warm, he printed them outdoors in the cold weather. 

There is also a rare orange variety of psilocybe semilanceatas that grows in Spain and the PNW USA. There is a couple pictures of this orange strain in our gallery. My friend from Spain that has been hunting these mushroms for decades also tells me he seens albino from time to time and several different shaded colors of semilanceatas. The semi's grow in the same region psilocybe hispanica is found in the Pyrenees mountains and they grow right next to each other like in this picture. As well liberty caps grow along side psilocybe Gallaeciae in Galicae Spain. Although semilanceatas do not grow directly out of dung, they do grow from the dung enriched soil below and through the dung when fresh. The dung acts like a casing soil and provides shade and holds in moisture. My friends in Spain are lucky psilocybe mushrooms are legal in their country and a normal part of their culture. I can't wait to go back to the Pyrenees mountains of Spain and enjoy the immense beauty and visit my friends for some exciting mushroom foraging again. I will share a very personal story with you all about my life and psychedelic shrooms.  Liberty Caps were the very first psychedelic mushroom I ever tried when I was 12 years old. I was living in Eugene Oregon at the time and a friend from jr. high school, Sam, had an older brother that new where to pick them on his land. I remember we went out to the field at night time with flashlights and kicked over some old cow dung patties and we found them underneath. We collected dozens and put them in a pie tin, dried them in the oven and ate some. All I remember is laughing and giggling all night long with my friend Sam. At that time I had only smoked weed a few times so these mushrooms were a whole new level of fun. That beautiful memory has stuck with me forever. We moved away from Oregon shortly after that shroom experience and my family ended up in a remote desert city. This was in the 80's, before the internet, where nobody ever had shrooms in that desert city. Sadly lots of hard chemical drugs but no shrooms. I probably never would have tried hard drugs if shrooms had been easily found. So shrooms eluded me for about 18 years. It wasn't until I moved to the big city of Phoenix where a friend at work gave me a bag of shrooms. Once again I had an amazing experience of laughing and giggling for many hours with a permanent smile on my face. As well I had an intense spiritual experience with Father which is what really captured my attention for psychedelic mushrooms. Thus my fascination for shrooms began in my early 30's. That's when I dug in deep to all of Paul Stamets books to educate myself and shortly after TheHawksEye.com, now Mushrooms.com, was created. :)  22 years later this amazing fungi is still a big part of my life. I hope and pray that many thousands of people will have spiritual experiences that changes their life for the better too. I get many emails telling how these wonderful shrooms has enhanced their lives so being chosen as a messenger for them has truly been a blessing.