Pileus/Cap: 15mm to 30mm tall by 10mm by 40mm in diameter, secotioid, pale tan to caramel brown when young, maturing to blue-grey, sometimes with darker blue stains in age, hygrophanous, cartilaginous-rubbery in texture.

 

Gleba: Chocolate or sepia-brown to purple brown, sparse, chambered, twisted and contorted gill-like structures.

 

Stipe/Stem: Up to 40mm tall by 6mm thick, fairly equal in diameter, cartilaginous, whitish to blue-grey, yellowish brown at the base, hollow with cream or caramel flesh.

 

Bruising and spore print: Inconsistently bruises blue or greenish when handled or damaged. Spore print unattainable due to secotioid/pouch-like form.

 

Habitat and distribution: Grows solitary to gregarious on decaying wood buried in forest leaf litter, often on rotting branches of Melicytus ramiflorus, and decaying fern fronds. Often found near streams. Occasionally found fruiting from wood chip. Most commonly found in native forest on decaying wood including mahoe, kahikatea, kohekohe, kawakawa, pine and ponga, alone or in scattered groups from roots, fallen sticks, branches, tree-fern trunks and fronds. Fruits year round throughout New Zealand though reports from some areas are minimal, most common in the Wellington region. Can be found throughout New Zealand.

 

Comments: Psilocybe weraroa does not drop spores as the gills remain enclosed within the peridium, relying on insects and slugs to spread spores.

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Pouch-like fungi should be cut in half (cross-sectioned) for accurate identification. Lookalikes include Clavogaster virescens, Rossbeevera pachydermis, Tympanella galanthina, Hysterangium and Gallacea species, puffballs, earth-balls and immature stink-horn sacks.

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Clavogaster virescens was formerly known as Psilocybe virescens. This can cause confusion when appearing in search results or older published material. Clavogaster virescens is inedible and has no psychoactive properties.