62A4FC09-C244-4BBA-983B-C6650BFE1639

Psilocybe Weraroa Part 2, in search of the true albino: during last years season here in New Zealand some either albino or sterile Weraroa started popping up and I started recording as much information about them as possible and it has become somewhat of a passion project for me. The first lot found where growing in a wood chip garden so I tracked them down to a local landscaping company thinking they are probably just sterile and spreading that way, chips came from an arborist mulch mix which would have contained cuttings of native trees. I started tracking any reports of possible albinos which I could verify with at least pictures as proof as Weraroa can already be quite pale and some people where getting mixed up with the normal ones(best way to notice is to do a cross section and look at the colour of the gills) , most came from the same wood chips but at least two from deep in native bush giving me hope they are also spreading naturally. Samples made it to someone who reported translucent spores which would mean they are true albinos and not just sterile (sadly no pictures of the first lot of microscopy), however a second lot of samples from the original collection have since been under the microscope and I now have conflicting information that they are nether true albinos nor sterile, just a low production of spores was the second opinion but there was unidentifiable translucent material found “possibly immature spores or contamination” though the 2nd person was a lab technician they didn’t have much experience with fungi and admit the interpretation was mostly guess work. With winter just around the corner the hunt will continue shortly and hopefully I’ll have more answers... photos: a comparison of normal and possible albinos side by side, the very localised area of the multiple different specimens found(roughly), 2nd lot of microscopy and check out how amazing that blue bruising looks on a pigment-less mushroom.