Most mushrooms that contain psilocybin are in the genus Psilocybe, explains Mike Hopping, an amateur mycologist, retired psychiatrist and co-author of a book about mushroom hunting in Western North Carolina. The most common so-called “magic mushrooms” are Psilocybe cubensis, which he says likely do not grow in the wild in North Carolina due to the climate.
“The mountains are largely bereft of wild magic mushrooms,” Hopping writes in an email to Xpress. “The more likely places to find them growing around here is under beds or in closets.”
Instead, Hopping explains, “they can be very common” in Florida and South Georgia due to the warmer temperatures in those states. He notes there are other mushrooms in the genus Psilocybe that “are rarely found in Western North Carolina,” he explains, calling them “potent, but real uncommon.”
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