For nearly a century, psychoactive boletes causing visions of little people have been rumored to exist, yet virtually nothing was known about them.

By combining ethnomycological fieldwork with DNA sequencing of collections from independent reports of hallucinogenic boletes across cultures, we discovered a common species responsible: Lanmaoa asiatica.

Genome mining of Lanmaoa asiatica failed to detect biosynthetic genes associated with psilocybin or ibotenic acid production, suggesting a novel psychoactive compound is responsible.

In this talk, Colin will tell the story of these enigmatic mushrooms, from their cultural history to modern scientific relevance, interweaving his personal insights gained along the way.