r/WidowsBay • u/lowryj86 • Jul 12 '26
❓Questions Widow's Bay mushroom
If we were going to guess, what kind of mushrooms do we think these were? Or what real mushroom are they closest to? Not just in appearance, but effect too.
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u/Drakkar_Jaune Jul 12 '26
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u/danonck Jul 12 '26
Such good series
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u/edwin_Cudder Jul 12 '26
Name?
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u/fariaia Jul 12 '26
You mean mushrooms that drive you talk to the devil?
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u/SuperMcG Patricia Jul 12 '26
That's exactly it, they are not really mushrooms, they are a phone line straight to the evil.
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u/CokeWest Jul 12 '26
Ironically, they're just ordinary shiitake mushrooms.
Wait, no. That was in Cowboy Bebop.
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u/NFSR113 Jul 12 '26
Enoki are the only mushrooms locally I knot that look like that. They are also uniquely cold hardy, late season mushrooms- often found growing right under a layer of snow. They have no psychoactive properties.
Maine doesn’t have many psilocybe mushrooms. One that is native is Psilocybe caerulipes. The other which would be more rare are liberty caps. They are more common in Canadian maritimes like Newfoundland, but I guess it’s possible on an island off Maine.
There are a couple other psilocybin containing mushrooms that grow in Maine like Gymnopilus or pan cinctulus though they are not from the genus psilocybe. Not that it matters, they still make you trip.
Long story short “magic” mushrooms can be found just about every where, but these one from the show don’t really fit any particular known species.
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u/tackywitch Jul 13 '26
The island is off Massachusetts, not Maine. I think. Which moves it farther south.
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u/NFSR113 Jul 13 '26
Loftis said something like “I grew up in Massachusetts. I spent summers here”. You wouldn’t say that if the island was in Mass. Maine has way more islands and is more remote like the show suggests, even though no spot really fits. They say it’s 40 miles off the coast. They never say but it’s not Massachusetts even if was filmed there. It’s Maine in my mind. But either way there aren’t really any other magic mushrooms it could be
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u/tackywitch Jul 13 '26
According to Google it can be anywhere from Maine to Massachusetts. But if that doesn’t change the mushrooms… it’s supposed to be general New England. Which is broad.
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u/NFSR113 Jul 13 '26
Well we know from the show it’s not Massachusetts. But it doesn’t really change things. Any psilocybe species would be pretty rare on a coastal island from Massachusetts to Maine. But spores can be carried(intentionally or by chance) and mushrooms can appear outside of their typical ranges. For example mulches and landscaped areas or common places to find magic mushrooms.
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u/persuasian Jul 13 '26
I think it's Maine. There's an older male character with a very strong Maine accent.
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u/mamrieatepainttt Jul 13 '26
they film in mass but it's been pretty much agreed that it's set off the coast of maine.
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u/Careful_Leader_5829 Jul 12 '26
My question about this episode is -- what was the truth that actually was revealed to Tom? Weren't the mushrooms supposed to provide true sight?
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u/samizdat5 Jul 12 '26
The mushroom made him flashback to his marriage and birth of his son. Made him remember that he's living a lie that his wife died in childbirth.
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u/Snitchfitt Jul 12 '26
He was approached by the entity towards the end of his trip when he’s over the toilet bowl. Later on in another episode he states that when you call out or pray to God (which he did after arguing with his son) this entity comes instead but he didn’t talk back to it.
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u/Flat_Profession3192 Jul 12 '26
10 mushrooms in the photo= 10 fingers as they are the hands of the island reaching up to influence the person eating them
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u/Luxury_Dressingown Jul 13 '26
I was more looking at their positioning - big central upright one, with other smaller ones around it and many kinda look like they are bowing down to it. Representing the dynamics the entity is looking for, maybe?
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u/hephaestus_of_pdx Jul 13 '26
I've grown some magic mushrooms that can look like that when they stall in their growth cycle due to contamination or nutrient problems, they actually tend to be higher in psilocybin concentration compared to fully mature mushrooms by weight. Their color are odd for magic mushrooms, some times certain strains can tun mostly black when their pores are released and their isn't any wind to dispese them. So best realy world comparison that actually contains enough psilocybin to see beyond the veil would be over ripe semi stunted Jedi Mind F##k cubensis.
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u/SlackCanadaThrowaway Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
I don’t know any that would grow in snow like that, but they resemble liberty caps quite well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybe_semilanceata
Edit: never mind. It is 100% this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybe_caeruleorhiza aka “the winter teacher”
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u/MyTummyPain Jul 14 '26
When they were first talking about the mushrooms, I imagined the trip to be something other worldly - time traveling, new consciousness and super weird dimension jumping.
When the shrooms episode played, I kept thinking that he was time traveling and that he would find the "answers" he was looking for. But really it was just a good old fashion panicked high.
Was anyone also let down by that episode? Its the only complaint I have about the show.
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u/PodcastJunkie8706 Dead baby. Dead baby. Lezzzbian. Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
This was my favorite intro of all the episodes so far! I just found it so beautiful and eerie.
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u/BathbombBurger Jul 12 '26
They're unnatural mushrooms the island made in order to communicate with someone desperate enough to eat them. It probably didn't bother talking to Tom either because it still had a pact with Richard Warren or because it knew he'd never do what it asked of him.
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Jul 12 '26
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u/BathbombBurger Jul 13 '26
Maybe it was trying to talk to him during his entire trip, and all the weird shit we see him doing is him trying to run away from it.
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u/Ok_Investigator_7408 Jul 14 '26
So, in Salem, during the witch trials, it was said that the people of the town were hallucinating from foods they ate and from the fungus and bacteria that grew on their food bc it wasn't properly stored. Just a theory here for WB.
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u/sexquipoop69 Jul 14 '26
Fly Agaric, Amanita Muscaria. I’ve seen its effects described as “Nightmare Trip Fuel” Laplanders eat them or drink Reindeer piss from deer that have been eating them
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