About Ecuador (Psilocybe cubensis): Name, Origin Claims and Spore Traits Mushrooms
Updated: October 9, 2026
Mushroom spores are sold strictly for microscopy and research purposes only. Cultivation of Psilocybin-containing fungi is illegal in many jurisdictions. This page is not a guide to finding, growing, or taking mushrooms.
Short answer: Ecuador is a trade name for material sold as Psilocybe Cubensis (Earle) Singer. It is not a separate species, a published variety, or a recognised variant. Sellers say it comes from Ecuador, but they disagree on where: near Otavalo in the northern mountains, the Andes, the highlands, or the Amazon region. They also give altitudes from about 1,000 m to about 3,000 m. Two sellers credit a collector written "BIO" in 2000, and no voucher or record is published for the line. A separate 2021 paper reports wild P. cubensis in Ecuador's highland grasslands, and it does not name this trade line.
Home » Strain Encyclopedia » Psilocybe Cubensis » Ecuador
In this guide
- What Ecuador is
- Taxonomy
- What is documented and what is lore
- Spore and cap traits
- Origin claims, source by source
- The 2021 Ecuador record
- Names and spellings
- Identifying it, and what a microscope can't tell you
- Examining a slide
- Mushly products
- Legal note
- References
- FAQ
What Ecuador is
Ecuador is one of many named lines of Psilocybe cubensis in Mushly's all-strains library. The name is a catalogue label used by spore sellers. It describes a product and not a taxon, and a country in the name is a seller's claim and not a specimen record. For the difference between a species and a trade name, see our species vs strain primer and the Psilocybe cubensis species guide.
"Ecuador is a trade name for Psilocybe cubensis, not a species or published variety. Sellers say Otavalo, the Andes or the Amazon, at altitudes that differ threefold, and credit a collector called BIO. A separate 2021 paper records wild cubensis in Ecuador. Claims compared."
Taxonomy
| Rank | Entry |
|---|---|
| Kingdom | Fungi |
| Phylum | Basidiomycota |
| Class | Agaricomycetes |
| Order | Agaricales |
| Family | Placement varies by source: Index Fungorum, Species Fungorum and NCBI list Agrocybaceae, while Wikipedia and many other references use Hymenogastraceae |
| Genus | Psilocybe |
| Species | Psilocybe cubensis (Earle) Singer, Sydowia 2(1-6): 37 (1948) |
| Basionym | Stropharia cubensis Earle (1906), described from Cuba |
| Trade name | Ecuador (informal) |
Species records: Index Fungorum 290107, the Species Fungorum synonymy and NCBI Taxonomy 181762. None lists Ecuador.
What is documented and what is lore
| Question | Status |
|---|---|
| Is Ecuador a species or published variety? | No. The only formal name is Psilocybe cubensis. |
| Is P. cubensis recorded in Ecuador? | Yes. A 2021 paper reports it from highland grasslands. See below. |
| Does that record cover the trade line? | No. The paper does not name the line. |
| Spore size and shape | Published for the species only, with no Ecuador-line measurements. |
| Collected near Otavalo | Seller claim only. No voucher or herbarium record is published. |
| Collected by "BIO" in 2000 | Two sellers say so, and one calls "BIO" a mycologist. Unverified. |
| Altitude | Sellers give about 1,000 m, 1,100 m and about 10,000 ft (about 3,000 m). |
| Published literature using the line name | None is known. |
Spore and cap traits
Short answer: the published measurements describe the species, not this name.
Singer and Smith's 1958 Mycologia monograph (Mycological investigations on Teonanácatl) describes P. cubensis spores as:
- Size: 11.5-17.3 × 8-11.5 × 7-9 µm
- Surface: smooth, with a thick, complex wall
- Apex: truncate, from a distinct apical pore
- Colour in a mountant: dark yellow brown in KOH, dark olive brown in NH4OH
The KOH and NH4OH colours are mountant colours, not spore-print colours. The paper does not mention Ecuador. Guzmán et al. (2012) give a second species-level range of (12-)13-15(-17) × 8-10(-11) × 7-9 µm.
Seller descriptions are not diagnostic, and they differ. PNW Spore's image text says "small brown caps, white stems," and its text says "dark warm brown to a golden brown." Sacred Mushroom Spores describes "huge convex tops" with "a huge caramel crown." Gorilla Spores gives "dark purplish-brown" for spores, which is a print-colour description and not a measurement. Cap size is described as both small and huge. None of the pages we checked gives a measured spore size for this label. Container sizes such as 10 cc or 12 cc are syringe volumes, not spore sizes. Record what you actually see on your own slide.
Origin claims
Short answer: the sellers agree on Ecuador and on little else.
| Source | What it says |
|---|---|
| PNW Spore | "Found growing in the northern mountain regions of Ecuador near Otavalo," roughly 10,000 feet, "collected and printed by mycologist 'BIO'" in 2000. |
| Gorilla Spores | "Originate from the Ecuadorian Amazon region," and elsewhere "found near pasturelands and tropical regions of Ecuador." Names no collector, site or date. |
| Ryzo Bioscience | "From the Ecuadorian Andes mountains, growing at an altitude of up to 1000 meters." Names no collector or date. |
| Sacred Mushroom Spores | "Discovered in Ecuador in the Highlands region," at 1,100 m. Says it "is not entirely clear when" the strain entered the hobby. |
The sources conflict in several ways. They put the line in the Andes, the highlands and the Amazon region, and they give altitudes of about 1,000 m, 1,100 m and about 10,000 ft (about 3,000 m). A repeated claim is still one claim. We do not state a place, an altitude, a collector or a year as fact.
The 2021 Ecuador record
A peer-reviewed paper, Alban-J. et al., "Psilocybe cubensis (Agaricales, Basidiomycota) en Ecuador," Lilloa 58(2): 86-94 (2021), records the species "por primera vez para los pastizales de altura de Ecuador," meaning for the first time in Ecuador's highland grasslands. It describes a dung-growing species fruiting on cattle dung in grasslands and gives a macroscopic and microscopic description. We read only the abstract page, so we cannot say where it was collected, at what altitude, or what spore size it reports, and we do not claim that it is related to the trade line. The point is that wild P. cubensis in Ecuador has a published record, and the Ecuador trade line still has none of its own.
Names and spellings
Sellers use Ecuador, Ecuadorian and Ecuador Mushroom Spores for what appear to be the same product. No source showing that every seller's "Ecuador" shares genetics with another's is known, and a shared country name is not a lineage. Record the exact label, supplier and date on every sample.
Identifying it
Short answer: microscopy supports a species-level note, not a strain identity.
- What a match shows: smooth, thick-walled spores with a truncate apex and germ pore, within the published species range, support P. cubensis as the species to compare. Ramírez-Cruz et al. 2013 notes that spore characters overlap across Psilocybe.
- What it cannot show: that a packet is Ecuador rather than another cubensis label, that it came from Ecuador, or that it relates to the 2021 record.
- Chemistry: Mushly makes no claims about the chemical content of Ecuador, and no published laboratory analysis under this name is known.
Examining a slide
Follow the general method in our Golden Teacher guide and the mushroom spores guide, and then:
- Measure at least 20 spores (length × width) and record the magnification and mountant.
- Note the germ pore, the wall, and the shape in face and side view.
- Record the colour in the mountant and the print colour separately.
- Write down the exact label (Ecuador), supplier and date.
- Remember the limit: a fit to P. cubensis does not prove the Ecuador label.
Mushly products
Mushly offers Ecuador as a 12 cc spore syringe, as a spore print, and in a four-syringe multi-pack with Golden Teacher, Amazon and Alacabenzi, for microscopy and taxonomic study. Check size, price and availability on each product page.
Legal note
Mushly offers spores for microscopy, taxonomy, and mycological research. Laws on spores, and on psilocybin-containing mushrooms, differ by country and by U.S. state, and cultivation of psilocybin- or psilocin-containing species is illegal under U.S. federal law and in many other jurisdictions. Check the law where you live before ordering.
Ecuador spore syringe · Ecuador spore print · Mushroom spores for microscopy guide
References
- Index Fungorum 290107; Species Fungorum synonymy; NCBI Taxonomy 181762
- Singer, R. & Smith, A.H. (1958), Mycologia 50
- Guzmán et al. 2012, Mycotaxon 119: 65-81
- Ramírez-Cruz et al. 2013, Canadian Journal of Botany
- Alban-J., Terán, Robles-U., Quinde & Niveiro (2021), Lilloa 58(2): 86-94 (abstract page only; DOI 10.30550/j.lil/2021.58.1/2021.09.30)
- Seller claims (not papers, not verified): PNW Spore; Gorilla Spores; Ryzo Bioscience; Sacred Mushroom Spores
What is Ecuador?