B+ spores

B+ is one of the oldest named lines of Psilocybe cubensis still in circulation, and with Golden Teacher it is the strain most often used as a reference. It is usually traced to a grower known as Mr. G and is recorded as a landrace rather than a deliberate cross. Older claims that it is a hybrid with another Psilocybe species do not survive scrutiny: under the microscope it is an entirely typical cubensis.

That ordinariness is its value. A line this widely studied gives you thousands of other people's measurements to check your own technique against, which is exactly what you want from a calibration sample.

Golden Teacher vs B+

This is one of the most searched comparisons in the hobby, and the microscopy answer is short: on a slide you cannot reliably tell them apart. Both produce subellipsoid, thick-walled spores of roughly 11-17 by 8-11 micrometres with a distinct germ pore, and both print a dark purple-brown.

The differences usually described are in the fruit body and in cultivation, which a microscopy library neither supplies nor discusses. If you want both on your bench, run them side by side at 1000x and measure twenty spores of each. It is a good exercise precisely because the result is so close. Our Golden Teacher page carries the other half of the pair.

Albino B+ and Mad Hatter

Mad Hatter is the albino expression isolated from B+. Albinism removes pigment from the spore wall, so its print is far paler than the parent's, and that difference is genuinely visible on paper and under the scope. The albino page explains albino, leucistic and true albino lines in more detail.

Where B+ sits in the family tree

B+ is a parent as well as a reference. Strain Origins records it in the lineage of later lines including Tidal Wave and Golden Mammoth, and you can trace those relationships in the B+ Strain Origins entry.