Sometimes these two species may appear in the same habitat as one another and some people o the internet claim that the Stropharia is a good indicator that they might possibly be some P. cyanescens in the same habitat.
I have only sen this Stropharia in the last ten years in about one out of every 25 or more patches of P. cyanescens when I come across them. Also, there are many alder mulched garden beds which have the Stropharias but do not have any P. cyanescens and vice versa. Sometimes a few Stropharia aurantiaca will appear in the same mulch beds as P. cyanesccens.
I also sometimes find other species of Stropharia, in small colonies of three to five or ten large capped S. semiglobata, and S. Hofmannii growing near P. cyans or in a habitat close to them
From 1974 through the mid 1980s, 905 of all P. cyanescens it he Seattle area grew in a brand product of mulch called Steer-Co Wood Chips, purchased and spread around the city and suburbs from a company called Sawdust Supply. They are still in Seattle near downtown and still supply steer-co, yet the majority of cyans today are found in alder mixed with other hard woods and the alder consists primarily of stems and branches. In areas around black berries. 25 years ago, rhododendrons were a good area to find cyans. Not so much today but the alder is their medium.
due to the lack of clear cuts int he PNW which are mostly forbidden by law, except in certain areas and fewer each year are cut, the alder gets replaced with cedar which is too acidity for Psilocybian mushrooms to fruit from.
here are two images of P. cyanescens (young'uns)
[attachment=2:oc6hyvjx]cyanes1.jpg[/attachment:oc6hyvjx]
[attachment=1:oc6hyvjx]cyanes2.jpg[/attachment:oc6hyvjx]
and two images of both the bright reddish variety as well as the orangy variety of Stropharia aurantiaca
[attachment=0:oc6hyvjx]strop_aurantiaca2.jpg[/attachment:oc6hyvjx]
Since this only allows me to post three images in a post, I will post the other Stropharia aurantiaca in the next post following below this one.
boomer2
And here is the Orange variation of the same Stropharia aurantiaca.
This one was growing in a patch a few miles form the other one and in this area were a lot of Psathyrellas and some Coprinus and of course this mushroom of the Orange colored one. Both the same species have just a wide variation in the color of the caps from red to orange or orange to red.
[attachment=0:2o1um9as]strop_aurantaica1.jpg[/attachment:2o1um9as]
boomer2