Adapted from a story by Chris Vivian at the University of Florida.
The world of mushrooms is surrounded by myth and misunderstanding. One thing seems clear: there are magic mushrooms, containing psychedelic compounds, and there are poisonous mushrooms, containing amatoxins. Or is it?
Researchers at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) have identified for the first time a mushroom that contains both types of compounds. The study published in Current Biology on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026.
Magic mushrooms contain psilocybin, a naturally occurring Schedule I controlled substance that can produce psychedelic experiences. Deadly mushrooms contain amatoxins, some of which are responsible for fatal mushroom poisonings. The team was interested in the genus Galerina to see if there were species of mushrooms in Florida that contain amatoxins, which had not been documented.
As an undergraduate student working in the lab of Matthew E. Smith, professor in the UF/IFAS Department of plant pathology, Andrew Kunik discovered an unusual mushroom while documenting fungi at the UF/IFAS Ordway Swisher Biological Station. This little brown mushroom was in the genus Galerina-and some species in that group were already known to contain deadly amatoxins. However, this fungus also stained blue when handled, a characteristic found in some of the "magic" mushrooms.
"Part of my job as Florida's state mycologist is to identify poisonous or potentially poisonous species," Smith said. "I regularly consult with the Florida Poison Control as well as ER doctors, veterinarians and others who think that a person or dog may have consumed a mushroom, so it is important to know what species we have and whether they might cause problems for people or pets."
Kunik, Smith and their collaborative team, including Ben Lemmond from the Smith lab, Michael Christopher and Timothy Garrett from UF Chemistry, Bryn Dentinger from the University of Utah and Jason Slot from Ohio State University, found that what looked like a common little brown mushroom turned out to be something unique: a species that contains both compounds in a remarkable chemical cocktail. The species, Galerina indica, has been dubbed the "dark magic mushroom."
"I did the bioinformatics and genome work, and Michael did the chemical analysis. We matched up our findings and confirmed that we saw both compounds," Kunik said. "I could hardly believe it. We knew it was possible but tried not to get too excited until we did a more rigorous analysis. We were very excited to move forward."
The mushroom's evolutionary history may be as unusual as its chemistry. The genes responsible for producing psilocybin and amatoxins likely entered the genus Galerina through at least two separate instances of horizontal gene transfer, a process in which genetic material moves between distantly related organisms rather than being passed down through generations.
Bryn Dentinger, a mycologist at the University of Utah and curator of mycology at the Natural History Museum of Utah, helped guide the team's evolutionary analysis.
"Horizontal gene transfer is like if we shook hands and some of my DNA incorporated into your genome," said co-author Dentinger, an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the U and curator of mycology at the Natural History Museum of Utah. "Two independent horizontal gene transfer events for these specialized metabolites in one mushroom genus are unheard of."
"We still don't fully understand why mushrooms produce psilocybin," Kunik added. "Amatoxins may help protect mushrooms from animals that eat them, but their precise ecological role isn't entirely clear either. That's what makes the discovery of the 'dark magic mushroom' so interesting. Why would a mushroom produce both of these compounds, and what advantage might that give it in nature?"
This discovery sets up possibilities for future experiments to help figure out how mushrooms benefit from making amatoxins, psilocybin, or both. If future researchers can knock out genes for the production of either compound and then see how the mushroom is impacted, it might help us to truly understand what those compounds do in nature.
"These mushrooms are really hard to find. They are small and brown, like hundreds of other mushroom species," said Smith, senior author of the study. "It's hard to differentiate them from others, even for a trained expert."
The species has only been documented a handful of times worldwide, making the preservation of specimens especially valuable. Those used in the research are now part of the Natural History Museum of Utah's collection, where they are available for future study.
Now a postbaccalaureate researcher at Harvard, Kunik continues his fungal studies.
"What's exciting is that there are small, seemingly uninteresting fungi that can conceal extraordinary chemistry that we're only beginning to understand," he said.
Header image: Galerina indica, the "dark magic mushroom," in a Florida swamp. Credit: Andrew R. Kunik
