Lanmaoa asiatica

The mushroom is found in Yunnan (southwestern China) and^[7] the northern Cordillera (Philippines), where it is known as Jianshouqing (Chinese: 见手青; pinyin: Jiànshǒuqīng; lit. 'see-hand-blue', as the flesh turns blue when exposed to air)^[a] and Sedesdem respectively.^[3][5] There have also been reports of "mushroom madness" caused by a mushroom called nonda in Papua New Guinea, though Lanmaoa asiatica has not yet been identified in this country.^[5] Lanmaoa asiatica is symbiotic with certain pine trees and only grows in places with these trees.^[8]

The bluing reaction observed when the flesh is bruised or cut is unrelated to the bluing reaction observed in psilocybin-containing mushrooms (caused by an oxidized dimer of psilocin), and L. asiatica has not been shown to produce psilocybin or psilocin.^[1][5] As with other bluing boletes, such as Gyroporus cyanescens, the bluing in L. asiatica is likely due to enzymatic oxidation of gyrocyanin.^{[citation needed]}

Lanmaoa asiatica produces Lilliputian hallucinations, in which a person sees little people in their environment.^[3][8] Reports of Lilliputian hallucinations across several countries had previously been unexplained for many years.^[3][4][8] In one Yunnan hospital, doctors treat hundreds of such cases a year that manifest visions of tiny elves going under doors, climbing the furniture, and scaling walls.^[4]

Lanmaoa asiatica is considered a choice wild edible in Asia^[2] because of its highly regarded umami flavor.^[9] It no longer produces hallucinogenic effects when it is properly cooked.^[5][3][4] "At a mushroom hot pot restaurant there, the server set a timer for 15 minutes and warned us, 'Don't eat it until the timer goes off or you might see little people,'" says Colin Domnauer, who studies L. asiatica.^[4] Yunnanese restaurants have developed a complete system of cooking and serving standards (including a ban on consuming alcoholic drinks with the mushroom) to minimize poisoning, with some establishments going further to make sure to always leave a sample of the mushrooms for analysis. The local government also sends short messages during mushroom season to warn about the potential of poisonings.^[10] Nevertheless, poisonings remain common and treatment thereof is a specialty of local hospitals.^[11]

Lilliputian hallucinations have been documented across almost one-hundred causes, including alcohol withdrawal, macular degeneration, and Charles Bonnet syndrome, among many others.^[5][8][12] However, no other cause induces Lilliputian hallucinations as reliably as does Lanmaoa asiatica.^[5][8][12] The hallucinations with Lanmaoa asiatica have a peculiar time course, with an onset of 12 to 24 hours after the meal and a duration of 1 to 7 days or in some cases weeks.^{[5][8][13][12]} The little people with Lanmaoa asiatica are said to be about 2 cm^[14] or 10 to 30 cm tall^[12] and anchored in one's environment, including being stable, realistically embedded in the environment, three-dimensional, rendered in fine detail, and obeying the laws of physics.^[5][8][12] One example is little people submerging themselves in a soup, resurfacing, and then being lifted out in a spoon.^[5][12] Nothing else is said to be known that produces anchored Lilliputian hallucinations like Lanmaoa asiatica.^[5] Due to the delayed onset, it has been hypothesized that the active constituent might be a prodrug or that it might act by altering the gut somehow.^[5] People who see little people on Lanmaoa asiatica are aware that they are hallucinations.^[12] In addition to the Lilliputian hallucinations, Lanmaoa asiatica can produce gastrointestinal symptoms, acute cognitive impairment, and delirium, among other symptoms.^[5][8][12] People recover fully from the intoxication, with no known lasting toxicity, and no deaths have been reported.^[8][15][12]

Chemical and genomic analyses indicate that L. asiatica contains no known psychoactive compounds such as psilocybin or muscimol,^[3][1][5] suggesting that an unknown hallucinogenic compound is involved.^{[3][4][1][16]} Chemical analysis of L. asiatica has identified numerous compounds and their pharmacological activity has been studied, but as of yet, none are linked to the effects.^{[17][18][19][20]}

Colin Domnauer and colleagues are working on identifying the active constituents of Lanmaoa asiatica as of 2025 and 2026.^[5][3][6] The work is said to be challenging as there are hundreds of compounds in the mushroom.^[5] In July 2026, Domnauer shared that it was still unclear how far they were from the discovery.^[5] He had said that he's certainly not assuming that the compound is an alkaloid and it might be something different like a large protein.^[5] In addition, Domnauer has suggested that the active compound might not even cross in the brain, for instance working peripherally or via the gut or brainstem somehow.^[5][12] According to Domnauer, the effects and time course of the mushrooms are highly peculiar, so the chemistry might be too.^[5][12] In attempting to identify the active constituents, Domnauer is taking advantage of the fact that they are destroyed by cooking and hence heat by comparing how the chemical contents differ between cooked and uncooked mushrooms.^[5] They've been narrowing down the compounds by fractionating and testing extracts in mice and observing the behavioral changes.^[3][8][12] Progress is slow as the mushroom grows in symbiosis with tree roots and it cannot be cultivated like psilocybin-containing mushrooms and must instead be gathered wild.^[5][8] Domnauer and colleagues have narrowed the active fraction to a small handful of candidates.^[5][8][12] They are said to be polar and water-soluble.^[12] However, the team needs more material in order to characterize the compounds and so will need to travel to China again to get more samples.^[5][12] In addition, it is unclear whether the compounds causing the behavioral changes in mice are the same ones causing the Lilliputian hallucinations in humans.^[8]

Though he says he's been tempted to, Domnauer has not personally tried the raw mushrooms and has not experienced the Lilliputian hallucinations himself.^[8] He gave reasons for this including the long duration of effects, potential unpleasant side effects and toxicity, and the dose being unknown.^[8][15] He has however eaten the mushrooms cooked at a hot-pot-style restaurant in China and found them to be "delicious".^[15]

Lanmaoa asiatica and the Lilliputian hallucinations it induces may have been described as early as the third century in China.^[5][12] Bolete mushrooms producing Lilliputian hallucinations were observed and described in Papua New Guinea from the 1930s to the 1960s.^[8] Boletes producing Lilliputian hallucinations in China were subsequently described and brought to Western attention by David Arora and others in the 1990s.^{[5][21][22][23][24]} Colin Domnauer and colleagues identified the Chinese boletes as Lanmaoa asiatica and described these results in 2025.^[3] They also found Lanmaoa asiatica and reports of Lilliputian hallucinations in the Philippines in 2024 and described these findings as well.^[3]

• Hallucinogenic bolete mushroom
• Rubroboletus sinicus