Genus at a glance
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Classification | Genus |
| Family | Bolbitiaceae |
| Described species | ~250 (a small minority psychoactive) |
| Spore print | Rusty brown to cinnamon |
| Distribution | Cosmopolitan; common in lawns and pastures |
| Habitat | Grassland, lawns, dung, rich soil |
| Key alkaloids | Psilocybin/psilocin (a few species) |
Overview
Conocybe — the "conecaps" — are small, delicate, fragile mushrooms of lawns, pastures, and dung, with thin conical caps and slender stems that often collapse within hours of fruiting. The genus is overwhelmingly non-psychoactive, but a few species produce psilocybin, typically the same grassland and dung-associated species that share habitat with active Panaeolus and Psilocybe.
The genus is closely related to — and historically confused with — Pholiotina, and several psilocybin records have shuffled between the two as taxonomy was revised. Conocybe is also a textbook caution: the genus sits beside lethal amatoxin-producing relatives, and its small brown fruiting bodies are easy to misidentify.
Documented species
| Species | Notes | Distribution |
|---|---|---|
| C. cyanopus | Classic small bluing producer (often placed in Pholiotina) | N. temperate |
| C. kuehneriana | Reported psilocybin content | Europe |
| C. siligineoides | Historically reported active; poorly known | Mexico |
Under-documented & emerging
The boundary between Conocybe and Pholiotina keeps shifting, so older psilocybin reports are hard to attribute to a modern species with confidence. Most Conocybe have never been chemically tested, the fruit bodies are too ephemeral for easy study, and the genus is under-sampled outside Europe and North America. Several names in the literature almost certainly cover more than one biological species.
How to read this
Educational profile only. Conocybe are small, fragile, and easily confused with deadly amatoxin-producing relatives; field identification is unreliable and risky.