The hallucinogenic mushroom that contains no known psychedelic
Key takeaways
- Its genome has now been read in full, and whatever causes the visions is nothing science recognises.
- A globally distributed genus of boletes called Lanmaoa may represent a third family of psychoactive mushrooms, working through a chemistry that no one understands yet.
- The genus already holds one of the strangest entries in the toxicological literature.
Its genome has now been read in full, and whatever causes the visions is nothing science recognises.
A globally distributed genus of boletes called Lanmaoa may represent a third family of psychoactive mushrooms, working through a chemistry that no one understands yet.
The genus already holds one of the strangest entries in the toxicological literature. In Yunnan, in southwestern China, eating an undercooked bolete known locally as jian shou qing can bring on vivid hallucinations of tiny people. Patients describe colourful figures only a few centimetres tall, marching, dancing and climbing over the furniture. The effect sharpens with the eyes closed. More than a hundred such cases are treated each year at a single Yunnan hospital, and according to a November 2025 article by the study's lead researcher, Colin Domnauer, published on the University of Utah's news site, 96 percent of those who sought hospital help after eating the mushroom reported seeing little people. The clinical term is Lilliputian hallucination, after the six-inch inhabitants of Gulliver's Travels.