New discovery ·
Newly documented: a psilocybin mushroom in the Maloti
A 2024 species description and a 2026 preprint have put southern Africa onto the map of documented ritual mushroom use. Here is what is actually new — and why we label it 'newly documented,' not 'newly discovered.'
By MushroomTribes editorial
The report
In 2024 a paper in Mycologia formally described Psilocybe maluti, a psilocybin mushroom native to the Maloti–Drakensberg highlands, and reported its traditional use by Basotho healers.1 In 2026 a follow-up preprint reported interviews with 26 healers and 8 non-healers, describing use across four domains — initiation, healing, recreation, and magical protection.2 Together they constitute the strongest currently published case for Indigenous ritual psilocybin use in Africa.
What is actually new
The tradition is not new. What is new is its documentation in the scientific literature — and the recognition that the mushroom itself is a distinct native species rather than a stray import. For decades the working assumption was that traditional psilocybin use was essentially an American phenomenon. This work suggests that assumption reflected where researchers had looked, not where the practices were.
Documented, not discovered
It matters that this is documented, not discovered. “Discovered” centres the outside researcher and implies the practice began when science noticed it. In fact it was already there; the literature is only now catching up — and still catching up, since the key ethnographic paper remains a preprint.
What we are watching
The next milestone is peer review of the ethnographic work, and independent corroboration of details — the healer categories, the sethoto brew, the reported combinations with Boophone disticha — beyond the initial team. We will update the Basotho and Psilocybe maluti pages as that record firms up.
Footnotes
What remains uncertain
- The ethnographic evidence is, at the time of writing, a preprint that has not completed peer review.
- Details of preparation beyond the sethoto brew come partly from derivative summaries.
Sources & further reading
Breyten van der Merwe et al. (2024). A description of two novel Psilocybe species from southern Africa and some notes on African traditional hallucinogenic mushroom use. Mycologia 116(5).
Formally describes two native southern African species — Psilocybe maluti and Psilocybe ingeli — and reports Basotho traditional use of P. maluti, co-authored with the traditional healer Mamosebetsi Sethathi. The first strong published African case.
Cullen Taylor Cox & and colleagues (2026). Basotho ethnomycology of Psilocybe maluti: interview evidence (preprint). SocArXiv / OSF Preprints.
Interviews with 26 healers and 8 non-healers describing four use domains: initiation, healing, recreation, and magical protection. Not yet peer-reviewed.
Editorial record
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