Penis Envy

Roger Rabbit — an infamous amateur mycologist and respected member of the online Shroomery community is famous for saying, “Cubes are cubes, with the exception of Penis Envy.” Penis Envy is just one of several hundred strains within the greater Psilocybe cubensis species. And P. cubensis is just one of nearly 200 species of psychoactive fungi. The most notable characteristic of the Penis Envy mushroom is its exceptional potency. Samples of this mushroom have shown combined psilocybin and psilocin concentrations as high as 2.90% (3–6 times more potent than the average Psilocybe cubensis).

Only one sample from a strain called Tidal Wave had higher psilocybin levels than Penis Envy (3.82% total tryptamines). Tidal Wave itself is a cross between B+ and Penis Envy genetics. However, the average potency for Tidal Wave is much lower — around 1.17%. Another distinction of this strain is its notable phallic shape. The cap on Penis Envy mushrooms remains close to the stem, and the stem is thicker than average — making the shrooms look a lot like a circumcised penis. Today, dozens of variations and offshoots are derived from the original Penis Envy cultivar.

The Mysterious History of the Penis Envy Mushroom

There’s a surprising degree of mystery and controversy surrounding the origins of this magical mushroom strain.

Many believe the original sample of Penis Envy was taken by Terence McKenna on his trip to the Colombian Amazon in the early 1970s with his brother, Dennis McKenna.

The original story, as reported by Hamilton Morris (a renowned psychedelic journalist and host of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia), was that a spore print of the mushroom somehow made its way from McKenna’s collection to another infamous mycologist by the name of Steven Pollock. Pollock then further developed the strain into the Penis Envy we know and love today. It was Morris’ reporting of the mushroom, along with mentions of its characteristically strong psychoactive properties, that has led to the widespread popularity of this mushroom today.

Here’s where the story gets interesting — Pollock died under extremely mysterious conditions. He was reportedly shot in the head and robbed in his San Antonio pharmacy in 1981. Morris reported in Harper’s Magazine that he was able to get his hands on a tape recording involving two alleged police officers who were in some way involved with Pollock’s murder.

Two suspects were eventually named in the murder and suggested to be methamphetamine addicts who were supposedly customers of Pollock — but the charges were dropped, and all evidence in the case was destroyed for unknown reasons.

After his death, officers discovered 1,753 jars of psychoactive fungi growing in his Pollock’s greenhouse — all of which were destroyed. Somehow, after Pollock’s death, a sample of the Penis Envy strain made its way to another mycologist in Washington named Rich Gee (Richard Guitierrez). Gee successfully cloned the mushroom and began distributing the spores to other growers around the United States. Today, Penis Envy is widely available from most spore vendors in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

With all of that said, the authenticity of this story isn’t clear.

A follow-up of the original reporting done by Morris involving an interview with Rich Gee himself suggests that Gee came in possession of the original sample of Penis Envy spores not through Steven Pollock but through one of the co-authors of Gee’s book How to Identify and Grow Psilocybin Mushrooms, Jules Stevens. Stevens reportedly got the sample from another friend who obtained it from McKenna. Gee then used selective breeding techniques to make the strain stronger by only propagating samples that showed the strongest blueing reaction (an indicator of psilocybin content in magic mushrooms).

Gee also credits the name of the strain to an experience with a group of strippers in 1977. Upon seeing the mushrooms, which Gee was planning to name “Amazons,” the strippers remarked they looked like “donkey dongs.” Gee says he responded by asking, “do you have penis envy?”

Of course, none of this can be verified. While Gee is a skilled mycologist with plenty of experience with the Penis Envy mushroom (and other strains), some of Gee’s other claims make his reports unreliable (in the same interview, Gee claims to have telekinetic powers and the ability to communicate with animals).