Hillbilly mushrooms are a cultivated variety of magic

mushrooms—a variation of the Psilocybe cubensis fungus.

 P. cubensis is the most common species of magic mushrooms,

known for its unfussy growing habits and fun, gentle trips.

Like with many magic mushroom varieties,

interest in the stout-stemmed Hillbilly has waxed

and waned over the past two decades—although it

enjoyed a distinct moment in the limelight after winning

the Hyphae Cup microdose category in Spring 2022.

Hyphae Labs, which runs the Hyphae Cup, operates in Oakland,

where psilocybin mushrooms are decriminalized.

Hillbilly Mushroom Basics

Mazatec communities in Mexico have used psilocybin

mushrooms for time immemorial. Psychoactive

mushroom cultivation began in the West in the 1980s,

over two decades after Mazatec Wise One María

Sabina first gave psilocybin mushrooms to

amateur mycologist R. Gordon Wasson,

as she was instructed to by a town authority.

In Mazatec tradition, the mushrooms are used

to heal the sick. Years later, ethnobotanists and activists

Terence and Dennis McKenna concocted a method

for cultivating psilocybin mushrooms at home.

Hillbilly mushrooms have been on the scene since

the late 1990s or early 2000s. A Mycotopia user

known—unsurprisingly—as “Hillbilly” is believed

to have foraged them in Arkansas. From their

roots in the American South, Hillbillies’ range

and notoriety have expanded, and they are now

known to grow wild in many places where other

 P. cubensis strains thrive. According to chemist and

Tryp Labs founder Jordan Jacobs, this winner

of the Spring 2022 Hyphae Cup microdose category

remains a mainstay among growers and psychonauts,

according to its impressive growth rates,

ease of cultivation, and euphoric experience.