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Psilocybe cubensis
Corumba Brazil
A Pantanal wetlands line named for the Brazilian river port of Corumba, known for the sharp little peak on its cap and a heavy, textbook purple-brown spore drop.
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The short version
Corumba Brazil is a South American Psilocybe cubensis named after the river port of Corumba, on the edge of Brazil's vast Pantanal wetlands. By most accounts it is a wild-collected landrace that has circulated since the early 2010s. Its calling card is an acutely umbonate cap, a sharp little peak at the centre, sat on a thick stem, and it deposits a generous, classic dark purple-brown print.
Straight talk
Fact vs. legend
There is a lot of folklore around this strain. Here is which bits are real, side by side.
What we actually know
- It is a Psilocybe cubensis line named after Corumba, a river port in Mato Grosso do Sul, southwestern Brazil, sitting on the Paraguay River at the edge of the Pantanal wetlands.
- It is a plain cubensis, not a hybrid and not a separate species. The name marks a geographic origin, not a cross.
- It has been circulating among spore vendors since at least the early 2010s, which makes it fairly old by modern named-line standards.
- Its most cited field mark is an acutely umbonate cap, a sharp central point that vendors and collectors repeatedly single out as the thing that sets it apart from rounder cubensis caps.
- It deposits a standard heavy, dark purplish-brown spore print, with the usual smooth subellipsoid cubensis spores on four-spored basidia.
What the community says
- The story goes that it was wild-collected near Corumba in the Pantanal, but no named collector, exact date or herbarium record is on the public record, so the precise origin is community lore rather than documented history.
- It is often sold simply as Brazil or Brazilian, and vendors disagree over whether Corumba and the broader Brazil line are the same genetics or two distinct collections from the same country. Treat the distinction as marketplace folklore.
- South American cubensis lines carry a reputation among hobbyists as exemplary genetics. That is collector enthusiasm, not a measured fact about this particular line.
- You will see the name spelled Corumba, Curumba, Corumba Brazil and Brazil Corumba more or less interchangeably, which is a good sign the paperwork was never tight to begin with.
The story
A name off a map of the Pantanal
Some cubensis lines are named after a hobbyist or an inside joke. This one is named after a place, and a genuinely spectacular one. Corumba is a river port in Mato Grosso do Sul, perched on the Paraguay River right at the western gateway of the Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland on earth, a flooded plain of caimans, capybara and jabiru storks. The story goes that the original spores were wild-collected somewhere out in that dung-rich, cattle-grazed floodplain, which is exactly the warm, coprophilic habitat Psilocybe cubensis loves.
How much of that is documented? Not much. By most accounts the line has been passed around the spore trade since the early 2010s, but there is no named collector, no precise date and no herbarium voucher you can point a sceptic at. So take the romantic Pantanal backstory as community lore rather than settled fact, and enjoy it as the good story it is.
It is named for a real place on a real river, which is more than most cube lines can say, even if the collection itself was never properly written down.
Corumba, or just "Brazil"?
The other wrinkle is the name. You will find this sold as Corumba, Curumba, Corumba Brazil, or plain Brazilian, and vendors do not agree on whether Corumba is its own thing or just a regional label on the broader Brazil line. Some insist the two are distinct collections from the same country. Without genetics to settle it, that argument is unwinnable, so we will say plainly what it is: a South American cubensis, apparently from the Pantanal, with one very recognisable habit on the mushroom itself.
The species
Meet Psilocybe cubensis
Corumba Brazil is a collector’s line of a single, well-travelled species. Psilocybe cubensis was first written up in 1906 by the American mycologist Franklin Sumner Earle, from a specimen found in a cattle field in Cuba, which is where the name comes from. He originally called it Stropharia cubensis; Rolf Singer moved it into the genus Psilocybe in 1948.
The genus name is a tidy bit of Greek: psilos (“bare”) plus kubē (“head”), for the smooth, peelable skin of the cap, so the full name reads roughly as “the bare-headed mushroom from Cuba.”
- Family
- Hymenogastraceae (older books say Strophariaceae)
- Genus
- Psilocybe (Fr.) P. Kumm., 1871
- Species
- Psilocybe cubensis (Earle) Singer, 1948
- Basionym
- Stropharia cubensis Earle, 1906
- This product
- Corumba Brazil, a collector’s cultivar of the species
- Type locality
- Cuba (where it was first named)
How you’d know it
Field marks
These describe the mature mushroom for reference and identification.
The pointed cap
This is the one collectors talk about. The mature cap is often acutely umbonate, meaning it keeps a sharp little peak at the centre rather than relaxing flat like many cubes. Broad and golden-brown to lighter yellow, with that distinctive central point its calling card.
Thick, sturdy stem
White to off-white and notably thick, the kind of meaty stipe Brazilian lines are known for. A partial veil tears as the cap opens and usually leaves a ring (annulus) on the upper stem, dusted purple-brown once spores settle on it.
Darkening gills
Pale and crowded when young, deepening through grey to near-black as the spores ripen underneath. That darkening is the spore load building toward a heavy drop.
Blue bruising
Handle or nick the flesh and it bruises blue-green over time, the classic Psilocybe tell as an enzyme converts psilocybin to psilocin, which then oxidises into blue pigments. A standard trait of the genus, nothing special to Corumba, but reliably present.
Where it comes from
A dung-lover with a wanderer’s history
Psilocybe cubensis is coprophilic, a fancy word for dung-loving. In the wild it lives on the droppings of big grazing animals, classically cattle and water buffalo, fruiting from warm, humid pasture. It does not grow on wood and it does not partner with tree roots.
You’ll find it across the warm parts of the world: the Gulf Coast of the United States, Mexico, Central and South America, Southeast Asia and Australia. It was named from Cuba, but where the lineage truly began is an open question. A 2026 study describing its closest wild relative in southern Africa suggests the deep roots are Old-World, the mushroom having apparently travelled with grazing herds long before anyone gave it a Latin name.
The main event
Under the microscope
This is what you actually bought the spores for. Put a print or a drop from a syringe on a slide and here’s what shows up.
- Shape & size. Smooth, thick-walled and subellipsoid, like a slightly squashed rugby ball, roughly 11.5–17 µm long by 8–11 µm wide (the figures Paul Stamets settled on).
- The germ pore. Look for a single pale, flattened dot at one end. That’s the one thin spot in the wall where, in nature, a mushroom would begin, and a real cubensis hallmark.
- Pale alone, dark in a crowd. A single spore looks honey-amber with the light behind it; only in a mass do they read deep purple-brown to black. So a near-black print but pale spores on the slide is normal optics, not a dud.
- What you’ll need. Find the field at 100×, study shape and the germ pore at 400×, and get the wall crisp at 1000× under oil. A touch of methylene blue or KOH lifts the contrast.
- The legal bit, and why it’s true. A dormant spore carries no psilocybin or psilocin at all; that chemistry only appears later in living tissue. That is exactly why the spores are legal to own and study in the UK.
Choose your format
Print, syringe, vial or swab?
Same lab-grade genetics in every option. The honest difference is shelf life versus how soon you’re at the scope.
Spore print
Keeps longest
Spores dropped straight onto sterile foil. Stored cool and dry it outlasts everything else here, so it’s the one to reach for if you’re building a collection to keep for years.
Spore syringe
Ready tonight
Spores suspended in sterile water, ready to go straight onto a slide. The quickest way to be looking down the microscope this evening. Comes in 3 mL and 12 mL.
Vial & swab
Compact
A sealed glass vial is a tidy middle ground; a sterile swab is the most travel-friendly, robust little format for adding a strain to your reference set.
At a glance
The spec sheet
- Species
- Psilocybe cubensis
- Strain
- Corumba Brazil (collector’s cultivar)
- Spore print
- Dark purple-brown to near-black, heavy depositor
- Spore shape
- Subellipsoid, smooth, thick-walled, with a germ pore
- Spore size
- ~11.5–17 × 8–11 µm
- Basidia
- Mostly 4-spored, ~20–30 × 7–10 µm
- Wild habitat
- Coprophilic, on herbivore dung & warm pasture
- Climate
- Subtropical to tropical
- Intended use
- Microscopy, research & collecting only
Dig deeper
Further reading
Independent, non-commercial sources, no shops, just good information.
- Psilocybe cubensis on Wikipedia: the species overview.
- The genus Psilocybe: taxonomy and the family reshuffle.
- Index Fungorum: the formal nomenclature record.
- Proc. Royal Society B (2026): the African wild-relative study.
Common questions
Frequently asked
Yes, for microscopy and research. A dormant spore contains no psilocybin or psilocin, so the spores themselves are not a controlled substance in the UK. We supply them strictly for microscopy, taxonomy and collecting, never for cultivation.
From the city of Corumba in Mato Grosso do Sul, a river port on the Paraguay River at the edge of Brazil's Pantanal wetlands. The line is said to have been wild-collected in that region, though the exact collection was never formally documented, so treat the origin as community lore.
It depends who you ask. Some vendors treat Corumba and the broader Brazil line as one and the same, others insist they are distinct collections from the same country. Without genetic testing nobody can settle it, so we describe it as a South American cubensis reportedly from the Pantanal.
On the mature fruitbody, the standout is the cap shape: acutely umbonate, holding a sharp central point rather than going flat. Under the microscope it is textbook cubensis, smooth subellipsoid spores, pale amber alone and dark purple-brown in mass, each with a flat germ pore at one end.
By all accounts yes. It is described as a heavy producer that lays down a dark purplish-brown print, which makes it a forgiving subject if you want plenty of material to work with on a slide.
Cool, dark and dry. A fridge (not a freezer) suits syringes and vials; a print keeps happily in a sealed bag somewhere cool. Stored well, a print stays viable for study for years.
Ask the community
Questions and answers
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For microscopy, taxonomy and collecting only.Sold for legal research. Not for cultivation. Spores contain no controlled substances. We trust you to be responsible.