The magic mushroom glossary, every term mapped to the next

A serotonin receptor found on nerve cells, especially in the cortex.

See also: Psilocin, Cross-tolerance, Peak

A structural analogue of psilocybin with three methyl groups on the nitrogen (4-PO-TMT).

See also: Tryptamine, Potency

Dutch-Smart sells truffles and related products only to adults, 18 and over.

See also: Smartshop, Start low

Anlage I of the German Narcotics Act (BtMG) lists the substances that may not be traded or prescribed.

See also: Psilocybin, List I

The ring on the stem, a remnant of the veil that covered the gills of a young mushroom.

See also: Psilocybe cubensis, Gills

An experience dominated by fear, panic, confusion or paranoia.

See also: Trip sitter, Interaction, Start low

A tryptamine found in smaller amounts in many psilocybin mushrooms, with one methyl group fewer than psilocybin.

See also: Norbaeocystin, Tryptamine

The blue discolouration of psilocybin mushrooms where they are bruised or cut.

See also: Psilocin, Lookalike, Degradation

The physical side of the experience, strongest in the first hour.

See also: Onset, Set and setting

The top of the fruiting body, carrying the gills underneath.

See also: Gills, Potency, Fruiting body

The most serious category of the UK Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

See also: Ester, Liberty cap

The stage in which mycelium spreads through the substrate.

See also: Mycelium, Primordia, Grow kit

The phase in which the effects ease off, usually gradually and in waves.

See also: Duration, Half-life, Driving under the influence

Growth of an unwanted organism in the substrate, usually a mould or bacteria.

See also: Substrate, Grow kit

Tolerance to one substance that also lowers the response to another.

See also: Tolerance, 5-HT2A receptor

Reducing a criminal offence to a lesser one, such as a fine, while the substance stays illegal.

See also: Schedule I, Opium Act

The breakdown of psilocybin and psilocin during storage and handling.

See also: Blueing, Potency, Magic truffles

Article 8 of the Dutch Road Traffic Act 1994 prohibits driving under the influence of a substance that you know, or should reasonably know, can reduce your ability to drive.

See also: Comedown, Duration

The total time from onset to the end of noticeable effects.

See also: Onset, Comedown

A truffle the shop recommends for a first time: on Dutch-Smart's scale, Mexicana, Pajaritos and Tampanensis.

See also: Mild, Mild to moderate, Moderate to strong, Strong, Start low

A compound formed from an acid and an alcohol.

See also: Class A, Psilocybin

One wave of mushrooms from the same culture; a kit can produce several flushes with rest periods in between.

See also: Primordia, Potency, Psilocin

A distinction that matters twice in Dutch law.

See also: Magic truffles, List I, Degradation

The mushroom: the part a fungus builds above ground to spread its spores.

See also: Cap, Primordia, List II

The thin radiating plates under the cap, also called lamellae, where the spores form.

See also: Spore, Spore print, Cap

A container of substrate that is already colonised by mycelium, sold so that the buyer only has to provide the conditions for fruiting.

See also: Colonisation, Truffle grow kit, Opium Act

The time it takes for the concentration of a substance in the blood to halve.

See also: Duration, Comedown

Short for hallucinogen persisting perception disorder: lasting or recurring visual hallucinations and perceptual distortions after the drug has worn off.

See also: Peak, Bad trip

A single fungal thread, one cell wide, that grows at its tip and branches.

See also: Mycelium, Sclerotium

The way two substances change each other's effects or risks.

See also: Bad trip, Psilocin

The common name of Psilocybe semilanceata, a small grassland species with a conical cap of 5 to 25 mm that ends in a sharp point.

See also: Lookalike, Psilocybe, Class A

The list usually called the hard drugs list.

See also: Psilocybin, List II, Fresh and dried

The second list of the Opium Act. Its entry for paddos covers "paddenstoelen die van nature de stof psilocine of psilocybine bevatten" (mushrooms that naturally contain psilocin or psilocybin) and names more than 200 species.

See also: Fruiting body, Opium Act, Grow kit

A mushroom that resembles a psilocybin species but is a different one.

See also: Liberty cap, Spore print, Other genera

An informal name for mushrooms that contain psilocybin and psilocin.

See also: Psilocybe, Psilocybin, Other genera

The trade name for psilocybin-containing sclerotia, sold fresh in Dutch smartshops.

See also: Sclerotium, Smartshop, Strength label, Truffle ruling

Taking an amount small enough that no clear psychedelic effects are noticed, repeated on a schedule over weeks.

See also: Tolerance, Magic truffles

The bottom of the scale. Dutch-Smart describes Mexicana as "the most accessible entry-level strain in the selection", with "mild, uplifting effects with virtually no visual effects at a normal dose".

See also: Psilocybe mexicana, Entry-level strain, Start low

One step up. Pajaritos is "slightly stronger than standard Mexicana", "cheerful and warm in character, with mild visual effects".

See also: Philosopher's stones, Mild

The middle of the range. Atlantis is "significantly stronger than Mexicana or Pajaritos" and "less intense than strains like Hollandia, Space Invaders, or Double Vision".

See also: Psilocybe atlantis, Strong

"A root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae".

See also: Hypha, Colonisation, Fruiting body, Sclerotium

The next step back in the same chain, with no methyl groups on the nitrogen.

See also: Baeocystin, Psilocybin

The first phase, often called the come-up, from swallowing to the first noticeable change.

See also: Prodrug, Body load, Peak

The Dutch drug law (Opiumwet), with two lists of controlled substances.

See also: List I, List II, Truffle ruling

Psilocybin also occurs outside Psilocybe: in Panaeolus, Gymnopilus, Inocybe and Pluteus, and in a few species of Conocybe, Galerina, Mycena and Pholiotina.

See also: Lookalike, Magic mushroom

The phase with the strongest effects, reached at about one to two hours (60 to 130 minutes) after an oral dose of psilocybin.

See also: 5-HT2A receptor, Bad trip, Comedown

A nickname for truffles, used first for the sclerotia of P. tampanensis and later for truffles in general.

See also: Psilocybe tampanensis, Magic truffles, Mild to moderate, Mycelium

The amount of active compound per unit of material, usually given as milligrams per gram or as a percentage of dry weight.

See also: Strain, Flush, Strength label, Test kit

The first tiny knots of a mushroom, also called pins.

See also: Fruiting body, Flush

A compound that is inactive itself and becomes active after the body changes it.

See also: Psilocybin, Psilocin, Onset

The active form: 4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, listed in the Dutch Opium Act as 3-[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl]indol-4-ol.

See also: 5-HT2A receptor, Blueing, Half-life

The genus that holds most psilocybin mushrooms, with more than 100 psychoactive species.

See also: Psilocybe cubensis, Spore print, Magic mushroom

Described in 2003 by Guzmán, Hanlin and White (Mycotaxon 86: 179 to 183) from a lawn in Fulton County, Georgia, where it grew on moss near a tributary of the Chattahoochee River.

See also: Psilocybe mexicana, Magic truffles, Moderate to strong

The species behind almost every cultivated magic mushroom and nearly every strain name on a grow kit.

See also: Strain, Annulus, Grow kit

A small Mexican species, described by the French mycologist Roger Heim in 1957.

See also: Sclerotium, Psilocybin, Magic truffles

Found once in 1977, in a sandy meadow near Tampa, Florida, by Steven Pollock, and described with Gastón Guzmán in 1978.

See also: Philosopher's stones, Sclerotium, Psilocybe mexicana

A tryptamine alkaloid, chemically the phosphate ester of psilocin.

See also: Psilocin, Prodrug, List I, Magic truffles

The strictest category of the US Controlled Substances Act.

See also: Decriminalisation, Psilocin

"A compact mass of hardened fungal mycelium containing food reserves".

See also: Magic truffles, Mycelium, Psilocybe tampanensis

Set is the mental state a person brings to the experience; setting is the physical and social environment.

See also: Trip sitter, Bad trip, Start low

A Dutch shop that sells legal psychoactive products such as fresh truffles, alongside herbs, test kits and grow supplies.

See also: Magic truffles, Age limit, Strength label

Material already grown through with mycelium, used to start a larger culture.

See also: Substrate, Colonisation

The microscopic reproductive cell of a fungus, formed on the gills of the cap and released in very large numbers.

See also: Spore print, Spore syringe, Hypha

The powdery deposit left when spores fall from a cap onto a surface underneath.

See also: Psilocybe, Lookalike, Spore

A syringe of sterile water with spores suspended in it, sold for microscopy and as a starting point for cultures.

See also: Spore, Grow kit, Schedule I

The advice, repeated on Dutch-Smart's pages for the stronger truffles, to take less than you think you need the first time you try a strain, even if you know other strains, and not to top up during the experience.

See also: Onset, Tolerance, Strength label

A grower's and shop name for a line of one species, almost always P. cubensis, kept under a fixed label such as Golden Teacher, B+ or Mazatapec.

See also: Psilocybe cubensis, Potency, Grow kit

The word a shop puts on a truffle to say how intense it is compared with its other truffles.

See also: Potency, Entry-level strain, Magic truffles

For people who already know how truffles affect them.

See also: Moderate to strong, Very strong, Trip sitter

The material that mycelium grows through and feeds on, such as grain, straw, manure, coir or wood.

See also: Spawn, Colonisation, Contamination

A reagent test that shows by colour change whether a sample reacts like a given substance.

See also: Potency, Psilocybin, Lookalike

The reduced response to the same amount after recent use.

See also: Cross-tolerance, Microdosing

A sober person who stays with someone during the experience, keeps the setting calm and steps in if something goes wrong.

See also: Set and setting, Bad trip

A kit that produces sclerotia instead of mushrooms.

See also: Grow kit, Truffle ruling, Sclerotium

The judgment of the Dutch Supreme Court (Hoge Raad) of 10 April 2026, ECLI:NL:HR:2026:450, in a VAT case about a truffle seller.

See also: Opium Act, Truffle grow kit, Smartshop

A family of compounds built on the same indole skeleton as the neurotransmitter serotonin.

See also: Psilocybin, Baeocystin, 5-HT2A receptor

The top of the scale. Hollandia is "one of the strongest truffle varieties in our range" and "not suitable as a first introduction to truffles", according to the shop, which also advises using it only when you feel well, mentally and physically.

See also: Strong, Set and setting, Bad trip