Talk:Psilocybe semilanceata

message: What about moving this page to Psilocybe semilanceata? As far as I know, the name Liberty Cap is predominantly used in the UK. 80.203.115.12 21:59, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: no real opinions either way, but Psilocybe semilanceata is probably best.   --Heah 23:31, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree about moving it to Psilocybe Semilanceata, as it is in fact its real name. We should rather mention that it goes by the name Liberty Cap in some groups... Opiax 11:34, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not sure I understand your arguments.  How is this different from any other organism with a common name and a scientific name?  "Liberty cap" certainly wins the google test over "Psilocybe semilanceata".  Also, for what it's worth, I believe "liberty cap" is the common name in US commerce, so it's hardly restricted to the UK.  — Pekinensis 18:20, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

text: added pictures and edited a little --DWA M Psibaduh 12:06, 5 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Name 

message: In the Norwegian article there's a section on the risks of mistaking several other types of mushrooms for this one, and some of them are highly toxic. Shouldn't this be something the current article should discuss as well? __meco (talk) 18:27, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Risk of mistaking this for other, potentially very poisonous mushrooms 

message: *"The gill attachment to the stem is adnexed (narrowly attached), and they are initially cream before tinting purple as the spores mature." From this wording, it's not immediately clear that "cream" refers to the color. Would you be opposed to appending it with "-colored"?
*"particularly in wet, north-facing fields and other habitats well-fertilized by sheep and cattle feces." This wording implies that north-facing fields tend to be well-fertilized by feces. How about replacing "and other habitats" with "that are" ?
*"It is widely distributed in the cool temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, but it is known primarily from Europe. However, it has also been reported..." The words "but" and "however" are generally used to set up a contrast between two ideas. The use of both of them so close together sets up some kind of three-way contrast that is not readily decipherable. I suggest replacing "but it is known primarily from Europe" with "particularly in Europe" or something similar.
*"it secretes antifungal compounds that help it compete for nutrients with other soil microorganisms." The use of "other" implies that the mushroom is a soil microorganism. I suggest removing it.
*"It is the world's most common psychoactive mushroom, and one of the most potent." I am of the opinion that these pieces of information should be in the first or second sentence of the lead. It is both interesting and widely accessible, and it may very well be the reason that most readers hear about the mushroom in the first place (besides seeing it on the main page of their favorite online encyclopedia, of course).
*:A further thought: what is meant by "most common"? One possible interpretation is "of the psychoactive mushrooms, most common in nature". Another is "of the psychoactive mushrooms, most commonly (ab)used". I suspect it is the first meaning. --Cryptic C62 · Talk 03:46, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *Alas, no, I haven't been able to find an English translation. I suspect it's something like "Critique of mycological systematics" or "A critical system of mycological systematics", but that just OR. Myco-fans will immediately recognize it as a famous work, and others, I suspect, will skim past the title (just some old Latin book). Sasata (talk) 15:25, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Added a few words to explain why. Sasata (talk) 15:25, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *That is better, I used your suggestion with some small adjustments. Sasata (talk) 15:25, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *I've definitely seen it without the the in the literature, but agree that it's clearer with the the, so I've added the the. Sasata (talk) 23:13, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Done. Sasata (talk) 23:13, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Changed stuck->placed. Sasata (talk) 23:13, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Is this any better? "... would prevent changes that would undermine the nomenclature of a very well-known group of fungi". Sasata (talk) 23:13, 20 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *Better, though I don't think that "undermine" is a great word for this. How about "wikt:obfuscate"? --Cryptic C62 · Talk 03:51, 21 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *More simply: "... would prevent nomenclatural changes to a very well-known group of fungi ..." Good? Sasata (talk) 15:57, 21 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *Saucy and simple! --Cryptic C62 · Talk 02:57, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *It is a range of shapes, so I've used your first wording. Sasata (talk) 15:57, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *You've got me figured out! Check out the hallucinogenic nipple pictured in the umbo article. I've now linked that term to this page. Sasata (talk) 15:57, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Sure, done. Sasata (talk) 15:57, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Yes, a researcher actually did. It's more instruction manual-like in the source. Suggestions for rewording? Sasata (talk) 15:57, 21 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *I don't think the article really benefits from its inclusion. You wouldn't expect to read "the brain becomes apparent if a piece of the skull is smashed to bits with a rock" in an article about cute cuddly otters, would you? --Cryptic C62 · Talk 02:57, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *No, but I wouldn't be trying to identify otters to species by exposing their brain matter. I would, however, try to identify a little brown mushroom I suspected was P. semilanceata by peeling a piece of its cap back and seeing if there was a thin transparent film. It's a field characteristic one can use to help identify a mushroom, much like cutting the gills of a Lactarius to see the color of milk that comes out, or scratching a Boletus to see if it bruises blue. Sasata (talk) 06:15, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Agree, changed. Sasata (talk) 06:15, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *The fungus, added. Sasata (talk) 06:15, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Well, I sure you'd be able to find some candidates willing to test it out. Seriously, I don't think we can read anything more into this than just reporting what the source found. Also, it's not that the mushroom itself would ever be used for anti-MRSA activity, but whatever as yet unidentified compound present in the mushroom, which would have to be purified, identified, and tested before any clinical applications were considered. Sasata (talk) 06:15, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *This wording came about because I wanted to describe its range in a general way, but by being more precise than "throughout Canada". It's not been reported from Alberta, Saskatchewan, or Manitoba, so I thought this was a clever way to describe the distribution. Now that some time has passed since I wrote this, I see it's not so clever, so I've just rephrased it. Sasata (talk) 06:15, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *"Magic mushroom" refers to any psilocybin-containing mushroom, and redirects to psilocybin mushroom. I currently have psychedelic mushroom in the lead sentence, which also redirects there. So they are essentially equivalent, but one is more colloquial. On I'm the fence on this one: should I replace the more scientific term with the colloquial? My gut tells me that most readers would know the meaning of either equally well. The (mostly) scholarly sources I used to write the article are more likely to have used psychedelic mushroom. Sasata (talk) 06:15, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *I don't think that replacing the scientific with the colloquial would be the best solution. This is, after all, an encyclopedia. However, someone with very little education or who learned English as a second language is much more likely to recognize (and be able to pronounce) "magic mushroom" than "psychedelic mushroom", leading me to believe that the article's readability would greatly benefit from the inclusion of the colloquial term. How about this: "... is a psychedelic (or "magic") mushroom..."? --Cryptic C62 · Talk 13:17, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *That works for me, added. Sasata (talk) 15:49, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *I agree, the linking scheme is not optimal and could use some maintenance. But that's a discussion better suited for the template talk page, as it applies to several hundred articles. Sasata (talk) 15:49, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *I can't really phrase it quite in the way you've suggested, as we don't really know for sure how long this species spends in this phase of its life cycle, nor even what exactly triggers the switch between these sexual/asexual life cycle changes. I did take out "has been described" and made that flow into the next sentence, which will hopefully make the wording more consistent per your first concern. Sasata (talk) 06:15, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *Fair enough. Perhaps it would be helpful to mention such a lack of knowledge in the article, assuming a source could back it up: "It is not yet known how long this phase of the life cycle lasts, nor what triggers the change between sexual and asexual phases." or some such. --Cryptic C62 · Talk 13:17, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *I could append a sentence something like this to the subsection: "Although little is known of the anamorphic stage of P. semilanceata beyond the confines of laboratory culture, in general, the morphology of the asexual structures may be used as classical characters in phylogenetic analyses to help understand the evolutionary relationships between related groups of fungi." Does that help any? Sasata (talk) 15:49, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *Yep, that works just fine! --Cryptic C62 · Talk 04:00, 25 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *Added with ref. Sasata (talk) 04:56, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Agree. Sasata (talk) 04:56, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Curtis is the "authority"—the author who published the species. It's necessary to give this information to distinguish it from the several other species that have been given the name Agaricus glutinosus throughout the years by different authors. I have reworded to make this clear. Sasata (talk) 04:56, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Changed implicated to identified, and mentioned it was the first recorded case from Canada. Sasata (talk) 04:56, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Sounds good, done. Sasata (talk) 04:56, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *I've expanded this with some discussion about Paul Stamets' potency rating scale. Please check if the prose sounds ok. Sasata (talk) 04:51, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Done. Sasata (talk) 04:51, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Good catch. I've taken out the "usually without the unpleasant mood effects"; although many take the drug without experiencing unpleasant moods, I've already explained that the experience depends on the personality on the individual taking it and their pre-exposure setting. Sasata (talk) 04:51, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Yes, better. Sasata (talk) 04:51, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Replaced with "In 1998, a study reported...", as it may just be something funky about the Swedish shrooms. Sasata (talk) 04:51, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

text: *Problem? Sasata (talk) 04:51, 26 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: *Ucucha has rephrased this sentence to a better-sounding version, does this address the issue? Sasata (talk) 05:34, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

text: I like them all... keep them coming! Sasata (talk) 03:10, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: That's the last batch! --Cryptic C62 · Talk 03:43, 26 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Prose comments 

message: I removed this sentence from the two-paragraph lead because I believed it lent an undue weight to a single research study that has not demonstrated any lasting significance to the subject of the article:
The mushroom has also been shown to inhibit an antibiotic-resistant form of the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, and it secretes antifungal compounds that help it compete for nutrients with soil microorganisms.
Many agents have been shown to inhibit MRSA in vitro, but unless there are further sources demonstrating a particular interest in this property of P.semilanceata, it would be misleading to mention it in the intro, and would attribute to this finding more significance than is appropriate. While the lead should summarize the article's contents, this sentence certainly does not adequately summarise the "Ecology and habitat" section - we already refer to this section in the lead when we mention habitats and the mushroom's saprotrophic nature.--Pontificalibus (talk) 15:29, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Thinking about it some more, I agree. The lead could probably be a paragraph longer too, will work on it soon. Thanks for your note. Sasata (talk) 15:58, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Reversion of removal of sentence from intro

message: Among the article's references, the journal article refers to the unfortunate man mistaking Cortinarius rubellus for Psilocybe semilanceata, with drastic consequences. However, it seems much more likely that he was instead hunting Psilocybe cubensis which resembles the Cortinarius much more closely than Psilocybe semilanceata. So the reference is certainly relevant (if only because it mentions Psilocybe semilanceata), but apparently for the wrong reasons. Comments?
Fairflow (talk) 19:20, 7 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: According to Guzman's 1998 "A worldwide geographical distribution of the neurotropic fungi, an analysis and discussion", P. cubensis isn't even found in Austria (where this incident occurred), while P. semilanceata is the most common European hallucinogenic Psilocybe; so if what you're saying was true, the victim was doubly mixed up. Regardless, our guesses about what he may have been looking for are merely conjecture, and on Wikipedia we have to stick to what the sources actually say. Sasata (talk) 02:15, 8 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks Sasata, I stand corrected, on two fronts. It's probably clear I'm a novice Wikipedia editor so apologies for any deviation from the guidelines with this comment thread. Fairflow (talk) 11:56, 8 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  References in article 

message: Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Psilocybe semilanceata --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:29, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  TFAR 

message: Congratulations to all the contributors to this featured article. I love the photo.  I used to go mushroom hunting as a child so this article does interest me. You deserve a lot of applause, recognition and appreciation. What a wonderful article.
:  Bfpage |leave a message  13:59, 4 June 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Congratulations!

message: Why mention the presence of phenylethylamine in the article introduction before baeocystin ?
Baeocystime is much more present, even psilocin could be more present. Boussole folle (talk) 07:40, 30 October 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Phenylethylamine presence in the sporophore 

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