People who eat this tiny magic mushroom may hit a lethal low instead of getting high. The fungus makes hallucinogenic psilocybin and deadly amatoxin, researchers report November 11 in Current Biology. Dubbed “dark magic mushrooms,” it is the first species of fungus discovered to make both types of compounds.
Chemist and fungal biologist Andrew Kunik found the dark magic mushroom in 2025 growing on a decaying moss-covered palm trunk in a central Florida wetland. Kunik, who was then doing post-baccalaureate research in the lab of fungal biologist Matthew Smith at the University of Florida in Gainesville, identified the mini mushroom as Galerina indica. That species had not been reported in Florida before, Kunik says.
Other researchers had previously described G. indica’s appearance and found DNA signatures that distinguish the fungus from related species. But no one had cataloged the mushroom’s complete chemical or genetic makeup. Related Galerina species make amatoxins, deadly chemicals that can kill in even tiny amounts and are found in death cap mushrooms and other species.
Kunik and colleagues looked for those toxins in G. indica and the two other new Galerina species. G. indica makes a previously undiscovered form of amatoxin the team is calling alpha-proamanitin, the chemical analysis revealed. The small mushroom also had blue bruises, a clue that it might make psilocybin, a psychedelic chemical being tested as a treatment for mental health disorders.
Fungi usually make either amatoxin or psilocybin. Galerina species 1 also makes psilocybin but doesn’t make amatoxin, and species 2 makes neither. Discovering these dual compounds in one mushroom was both exciting and required further analysis to confirm, Kunik says.
A complete workup of the mushroom’s DNA revealed genes for producing both types of chemicals. Ancestors of these dark magic mushrooms probably picked up those genes by swapping DNA with other species. Such DNA swapping, called horizontal gene transfer, is one way that organisms can quickly evolve new traits, like when bacteria exchange antibiotic resistance genes with unrelated species.
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