Psilocybe Tampanensis

In 1977, Steven H. Pollock discovered something quite unusual. The then thirty-year-old physician and mycologist frequently collected mushroom samples to study in his mobile laboratory, which he drove from Texas to Tampa, Florida late that summer. Yet, Pollock could never have anticipated the surprise that one of his newfound specimens had in store.

For weeks, the scientist cultivated the unknown Psilocybe in his lab—routine practice for mycologists. Then it happened: Several small lumps formed on the mycelium. Mycelium normally look like whisper-thin cobwebs spread throughout the soil; these lumps looked more like kefir grain. In time, the lumps grew larger. Pollock’s curiosity piqued. He described, dissected, and sampled the lumps in a bioassay. The results of his experiments revealed the true treasure that Pollock had in his possession: a new species. And a psychoactive one to boot.

What Pollock found was the sclerotia of the psilocybin-containing mushroom Psilocybe tampanensis, better known in popular culture as “magic truffles.”  Pollock quickly let his colleague, Gary Lincoff know their find was something special—so special that Pollock gave the mushroom several choice nicknames. “The rock of ages,” he called them, along with: “the cosmic camote,” “the superfantastic mega-galactic camotillo,” and “the philosopher’s stone.”

The last one stuck.

Read: The Definitive History Of Psilocybin and Magic Mushrooms

The Curious Origins of Magic Truffles

The story of Psilocybe tampanensis is, ultimately, a tragic one. In many ways, Pollock was a prodigy in the mycological sciences. He spent years researching how to cultivate various Psilocybe species, compiling his work into a book that contained numerous ways of cultivating magic mushrooms: Magic Mushroom Cultivation. One of these methods included brown rice, later demonstrated to produce mushrooms containing high levels of psilocybin. Pollock’s book, alongside Oss and Oeric’s (a.k.a. Terrance and Dennis McKenna) Psilocybin Mushroom Growers Guide, marks one of the turning points in psilocybe cultivation.

Pollock was in Tampa attending the Second International Mycological Congress, which took place over the last weekend of August in 1977. One of the lectures was by Mexican mycologist and Psilocybe authority, Gastón Guzmán, who gave a talk titled “The Hallucinogenic Species of the Genus Psilocybe in the World”. (Likely a great lecture; Guzmán authored The Genus Psilocybe in 1983.)