# This magic mushroom can kill

Source: [Science News](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dark-magic-mushroom-psilocybin-amatoxin) · 2026-11-11 · Life
Page: https://themorning.science/story/this-magic-mushroom-can-kill-6d6847df6c1e761c
Kind: research · Impact: medium

## In brief

- Researchers led by Kunik et al. report a little brown mushroom found in Florida's swamps that co-produces psilocybin and amatoxins.
- Psilocybin is the psychedelic compound of 'magic mushrooms'; amatoxins are the toxins found in the world's deadliest mushrooms.
- Evolutionary analyses suggest the psychedelic genes were acquired via a process the source excerpt does not fully describe.

## Why it matters

A single mushroom producing both a psychedelic and a deadly toxin means that visual identification of 'magic mushrooms' alone may not reliably indicate safety, and it challenges assumptions about how these compound families are distributed among fungi.

## Timeline

- 2026-11-11: Study by Kunik et al. published in Current Biology reporting the dark magic mushroom co-producing amatoxins and psilocybin

## Coverage

- [This magic mushroom can kill](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dark-magic-mushroom-psilocybin-amatoxin) — Science News, 2026-11-11
- [The “dark magic mushroom” co-produces amatoxins and psilocybin](https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(26)01428-4?rss=yes) — cell.com, 2026-11-11

Tags: mycology, psilocybin, amatoxins, mushroom toxicity, fungal evolution

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Brief generated by AI (claude-haiku-5-5) from the reporting listed under Coverage. Headlines belong to their publishers. The Morning Science – https://themorning.science