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I know people say Amanita muscaria is hallucinogenic, but my understanding is that it is pretty poisonous. Liberty Cap (Psilocybe semilanceata), on the other hand, is also common in Europe at least, and of course is well known to be very hallucinogenic and not poisonous. So if you were gonna depict a hallucinogenic mushroom wouldn't you choose Liberty Cap?

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The liberty cap is not a distinctive mushroom (small, round cap, brown). The amanita muscaria is beautiful and distinct enough that we recognise it in paintings hundreds of years later.

Perhaps the painter chose it for its beauty, or perhaps because it was both distinctive and psychedelic. No way to know. But the academics claiming that "the plant in this fresco has nothing whatever to do with mushrooms" are embarrassing.

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