TRIP FANTASTIC

Mother Nature acknowledges no federal prohibitions on hallucinogenic
substances, and, in spite of the law, soils across the city are
coming alive with mushrooms of the intoxicating genus Psilocybe.

"They're everywhere," says Dr. Dennis Desjardin, a professor of
mycology at San Francisco State University. "It's mostly Psilocybe
cyanescens. They come up all over the State campus here -- in the
parks, in yards, San Jose, in Marin. They grow almost anywhere that
people have spread wood chips."

According to Desjardin, Psilocybe cyanescens will grow independently
on most available soils, especially those that have been disturbed by
gardening activity. As the mushrooms sprout, they draw up wholesome
minerals and nutrients, then reconstruct them into the unlawful
psychedelic alkaloids that have been sending free spirits on lofty
trips for decades.

But the mushrooms haven't always grown wild here.

"The reason they're really starting to show up around the Bay Area is
that people have them in cultivation," says Phil Carpenter,
co-manager of the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz. "They grow them
and they escape. That's the best guess, because they're not native to here."

Rudy Johnson, a 54-year-old amateur naturalist and mushroom hunter
from the Marina District, has enjoyed this influx every season for
years, getting high every few days throughout the winter. Johnson has
his secret patches throughout the city, and he discourages pesky
journalists from blundering into the woods to report on subjects with
which they have no business.

"I know the sort that reads the Weekly!" he scoffs. "You're going to
get hundreds of yahoos out there. I've seen fools come to the
Presidio with shovels and sacks, ruining everything and not even
knowing what they're looking for, anyway."

Many Psilocybe hunters, he adds, are unfamiliar with the Death Cap,
Amanita phalloides, an abundant mushroom that can add some nice
character and flavor to pasta sauces and cream soups but will begin
to dissolve your liver within 24 hours. Johnson encourages interested
parties to pick mind-altering fungi with care and respect -- and in
moderation -- and to cultivate the spores at home. He says the
mushrooms often take well to backyards fertilized with mulched
woodchips of fir and alder.

Dr. Desjardin, meanwhile, suggests caution.

"It's illegal to pick mushrooms in the first place in a lot of the
parks, and it's important to know that if they catch you out there
with these Psilocybe mushrooms, they could throw you in jail."

Possession, production, distribution, or purchase of these little
cappers is a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Schedule 1
misdemeanor, just like pot. If you should discover a patch of wild
Psilocybe mushrooms, we advise that you carefully record the location
and report immediately to editor@sfweekly.com. We know the sort.