Students discover 'dark magic mushroom' - the first to have both psychedelic and toxic compounds

Students in Florida have made a pretty groundbreaking, yet disturbing, discovery - a brand new mushroom that sounds like a twisted joke.

The new fungal species packs both a mind-altering hallucinogen and a lethal poison into one single package, and has been officially named 'Galerina indica' - though experts at the University of Florida have dubbed it the 'dark magic mushroom' due to its bizarre chemical makeup.

The new paper marks the first time experts have found a single mushroom containing both psilocybin, which causes psychedelic trips, and deadly amatoxins.

Magic mushrooms contain psilocybin, a naturally occurring controlled substance that creates strong hallucinations and has become increasingly popular for recreational use.

Meanwhile, amatoxins are responsible for the vast majority of fatal poisonings globally, by quickly causing organ failure and death if ingested by humans or animals.

Undergraduate student Andrew Kunik initially spotted the little brown fungus while working out in the field at a biological station in Florida.

He noticed the specimen bruised blue when handled - a hallmark trait of magic mushrooms - despite belonging to a genus known for producing lethal toxins.

Galerina indica is the first known species that packs both the chemicals that cause psychedelic trips and those that can kill you (Andrew R. Kunik/Matthew E. Smith)

Working alongside professor Matthew E. Smith and a collaborative research team, Kunik set out to analyze it in the laboratory.

“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 explained.

“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."

Smith added: "Part of my job as Florida’s state mycologist is to identify poisonous or potentially poisonous species.

“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."

The dangerous fungus looks almost identical to harmless varieties, making it a serious threat to anyone who decides to go foraging for mushrooms.

“These mushrooms are really hard to find. They are small and brown, like hundreds of other mushroom species,” Smith noted.

These magic mushrooms that the researchers picked look almost identical to the new, deadly, Galerina indica (Andrew R. Kunik/Matthew E. Smith)

“It’s hard to differentiate from others, even for a trained expert.”

Experts believe the unusual chemical cocktail is the result of horizontal gene transfer, allowing the fungus to essentially steal genetic traits from entirely different species.

However, the exact evolutionary benefit of packing both a hallucinogen and a deadly poison remains a mystery.

“We still don’t fully understand why mushrooms produce psilocybin,” Kunik admitted.

“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?”

Now working as a postbaccalaureate researcher at Harvard, Kunik plans to continue studying mushrooms.

“What’s exciting is that there are small, seemingly uninteresting fungi that can conceal extraordinary chemistry that we’re only beginning to understand,” he added.