{"id":129253,"date":"2026-03-12T03:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/129253\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T03:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T03:49:14","slug":"where-did-magic-mushrooms-come-from-scientists-just-got-closer-to-an-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/129253\/","title":{"rendered":"Where did magic mushrooms come from? Scientists just got closer to an answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you think about magic mushrooms, you are likely thinking of Psilocybe cubensis, perhaps the most popular species. Where these fungi came from and how they evolved their psychoactive properties is somewhat of a mystery. But a newly discovered sister species could provide a clue.<\/p>\n

In a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers describe Psilocybe ochraceocentrata<\/a>, a magic mushroom found in Africa that is similar to P. cubensis but a unique species. The new species has been misidentified as P. cubensis or other mushrooms for years, but the new study suggests that the two species likely shared a common ancestor some 1.5 million years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur study suggests that the evolutionary cradle of the world\u2019s most famous magic mushroom may lie in Africa, where collections that were previously misidentified now represent a distinct indigenous species,\u201d says Breyten van der Merwe, a Ph.D. student in chemical engineering at Stellenbosch University in South Africa and a co-author on the study. \u201cNew descriptions like these reveal both diversity and how little we still know about African fungi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter from Scientific American and join a community of science-loving readers.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Psilocybe ochraceocentrata is found growing on cattle dung in the grasslands of southern Africa and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, both P. cubensis and P. ochraceocentrata rely on dung\u2014whether from cattle, bison, goats, horses, or other animals\u2014to spread their spores. The researchers used \u201cmuseomics,\u201d or genetic analyses of mushroom species already held in museums or other collections, to determine that the two species likely diverged some 1.5 million years ago.<\/p>\n

That timing aligns with other \u201cmajor ecological and faunal transitions,\u201d including herbivore migrations from Africa to Europe and Asia, the researchers note in the study, suggesting that changes in the dung landscape may be related to the species\u2019 split.<\/p>\n

The study doesn\u2019t answer how P. cubensis arose in the Americas. According to the authors, it\u2019s possible that its ancestor crossed the Atlantic via atmospheric currents, insects or even ancient animal migrations, but more research is needed to say for sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuture population genomic and demographic analyses will be key to testing these hypotheses and clarifying the species\u2019 dispersal history,\u201d the authors write.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you think about magic mushrooms, you are likely thinking of Psilocybe cubensis, perhaps the most popular species.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[70451,70449,70450,69623,70448,47362,106],"class_list":{"0":"post-129253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zimbabwe","8":"tag-breyten-van-der-merwe","9":"tag-indigenous-species","10":"tag-mushroom-species","11":"tag-psilocybe-cubensis","12":"tag-psychoactive-properties","13":"tag-researchers","14":"tag-zimbabwe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116214167165924271","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}