ACS Ochra: an isolated Psilocybe ochraceocentrata line

01What ACS Ochra is

ACS Ochra is an isolated line of Psilocybe ochraceocentrata, catalogued in the library simply as Ochra and carried in the Mushrealm collection as part of the A.C.S work. It is a different species from Psilocybe cubensis, not a variety of it, which is the single most useful thing to know before you put it on a slide.

02Lineage and history

The species reached the microscopy community under the name Psilocybe natalensis, described in 1995 from collections in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Recent taxonomic work using DNA sequencing alongside morphology found that the material circulating under that name did not match the natalensis type. It matched a newly described species, Psilocybe ochraceocentrata, named for the ochre-coloured centre of its cap. Serious libraries re-labelled accordingly, which is why cards in the library read "Ochra (prev. Natalensis)". The full story is in Natalensis and Ochra explained.

A.C.S is an American genetics group whose isolations reach the library through the Mushrealm collection. An A.C.S card is a cut: one phenotype selected and stabilised from a line that often originated elsewhere. The catalogue records ACS Ochra as their isolation of the species and does not publish a parent cross for it, so this guide does not invent one.

Where the species really shows its value is in its crosses. Natal Moon, a cross of this species with Phobos credited to Jeff Karas, is the parent of Blue Voodoo, Golden Satellite and Brass Barnicles, all of which are interspecies hybrids with cubensis on one side.

03Under the microscope

On the slide, Ochra spores sit very close to cubensis: subellipsoid, thick-walled, with a germ pore, in much the same size band. Telling them apart takes a graticule and twenty measurements rather than a glance.

The print is where the difference is easier to see. Ochra deposits tend to run lighter and browner than the deep purple-brown of a cubensis print. Take a print from ACS Ochra and one from a pigmented cubensis on the same sheet, in the same light, and the comparison is immediate. The cap colour that gave the species its name belongs to the fruiting body, not the spore, so it will not show on your slide.

04Where to buy ACS Ochra in the UK

ACS Ochra is in stock now. The card is ACS Ochra spore syringe in the strain library. Every syringe is a 10 ml luer-lock, filled in a flow hood from a logged print into sterile water, capped, labelled with the strain and its LOT, and refrigerated until it is packed.

• Price: isolated lines are listed at £20 per syringe. The card shows the current price, including any sale.
• UK shipping: £3.80, and free on orders over £75. US orders ship at a flat $8.
• Dispatch: one to two working days from the UK, tracked, in a plain padded mailer with no branding on the outside.
• Every order is 18+ and confirms lawful microscopy use at checkout.

Browse the rest of the collection on the Mushrealm and A.C.S chapter, or open the strain library to filter by species, format or isolation status. If anything arrives cloudy or damaged, email a photo and the LOT number and it is replaced.