Spore-print: purple-brown.
Spores: long, ellipsoid, slightly lemon-shaped, smooth and with a distinct germ-pore at one end and 12-14 × 7 µm in size.
Marginal cystidia: bottle-shaped with an elongate tapering neck, with thin walls which at most become pale honey in solutions containing ammonia, unlike the cystidia of Hypholoma ([p. 64]).
Habitat & Distribution: Commonly growing amongst grass in fields near farm-yards, on heaths and by roadsides; often it occurs in small troops.
General Information: Psilocybe semilanceata is recognised by the uniquely shaped cap; ‘semilanceata’ means half spear-shaped, from the papilla at the top of the cap, giving it a pointed aspect. However, the common name is more descriptive and comes from the fact that these caps resemble the helmets worn by French soldiers in the early part of the century.
This fungus was once very isolated amongst British agarics, but now it has been united with a group of small purplish brown-spored fungi formerly placed in the genus Deconica. What is of more interest is the fact that unlike many British agarics the cap often does not expand fully in order to release the spores. In this way it allows mycologists to hypothesise on how certain of the enclosed, stalked Gastromycetes evolved in some of the desert regions of the world.
Illustrations: LH 149; NB 3311; WD 787.
Plate 34. Fleshy fungi: Spores purple-brown and borne on gills
![[Larger illustration]](#467779198995390083_illo115lg.png.id-1071835833709788745.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}