Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Psilocybe semilanceata

Psilocybe semilanceata edit

This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 3, 2015 by  — Crisco 1492 (talk) 02:03, 17 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Psilocybe semilanceata, commonly known as the liberty cap, is a psychedelic (or "magic") mushroom that contains the psychoactive compounds psilocybin and baeocystin. It is the most common in nature of psilocybin mushrooms, and one of the most potent. The mushrooms have a distinctive conical to bell-shaped cap with a small nipple-like protrusion on the top. They are yellow to brown in color and fade to a lighter color as they mature. Their stems tend to be slender and long, and the same color or slightly lighter than the cap. The mushrooms of a saprobic species feed off decaying grass roots in fields, grassy meadows, and similar habitats, particularly in wet fields that are well-fertilized by sheep and cattle feces. The mushroom is widely distributed in the cool temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in Europe. The earliest reliable history of P. semilanceata intoxication dates back to 1799 in London, and in the 1960s the mushroom was the first European species confirmed to contain psilocybin. Further investigations into the chemical makeup of the fungus revealed the presence of the substances phenylethylamine , and the psychotropic tryptamine baeocystin. (Full article...)