Quick answer: Penis Envy vs Albino Penis Envy comes down to pigment. Both are strains of Psilocybe cubensis with the same thick stem and small, mostly closed cap, and both release very few spores. Penis Envy has the brown tones of an ordinary cubensis and purple-brown spores. Albino Penis Envy (APE) is white with blue tones, and its spores are so pale they are hard to see even under a microscope. APE was bred from Penis Envy and an albino line called PF Albino in 2006 and 2007.
Spores of both strains are legal to buy for microscopy in 46 states. Germinating them is not, which is why this page covers history and identification only.
Looking for Penis Envy or Albino Penis Envy spores?
Our Penis Envy and Albino Penis Envy spore syringes are 10 cc syringes, and they ship the same business day. Orders over $100 ship free, and our spore syringe packs save you up to 40%.
Intended use. Our Penis Envy spore syringes and Albino Penis Envy spore syringes are sold for microscopy, taxonomy and educational use only. This guide compares the two strains’ history, pigment, appearance, and what their spores look like under a microscope. It does not cover cultivation, effects, potency or dosing, and we do not answer questions about them.
In this guide
- What Penis Envy and Albino Penis Envy are
- How each strain came about
- Penis Envy vs Albino Penis Envy: what the mushrooms look like
- Spore prints, syringes and spores
- Why APE is white
- Side-by-side comparison
- Related strains
- Legal status of both strains
- Frequently asked questions
- Sources
What Penis Envy and Albino Penis Envy are
Both are strains of Psilocybe cubensis, the species that the American mycologist Franklin Sumner Earle first described from Cuba in 1906. Neither is a separate species, and both names are informal. A 2025 review in the Journal of Fungi noted that what is known about named cubensis strains comes mostly from “non-academic, community-based reports,” and that applies here too, with one useful exception: APE’s breeder described his work publicly while he was doing it.
The relationship is simple. Penis Envy is the parent. Albino Penis Envy, almost always shortened to APE, is Penis Envy’s body shape combined with albinism, which removes most of the pigment from the mushroom and its spores. If you know what Penis Envy looks like, you already know APE’s shape.
How each strain came about
Penis Envy. The spores behind Penis Envy trace back to wild cubensis that Terence McKenna collected in the Amazon in the early 1970s. An older story credits Steven Pollock with isolating the strain. The account now most cited comes from Rich Gee (Richard Gutierrez), who says he received the Amazonian spores in the 1970s through his friend Jules Stevens, not from Pollock. Gee says one line in the culture carried a mutation that kept the cap from opening properly, and that he stabilized that form by cloning it. His version is first-hand but rests on memory. Our Penis Envy guide covers both versions of the story.
Albino Penis Envy. APE has a much clearer paper trail. It was bred by John Workman, who crossed Penis Envy with PF Albino, an existing albino cubensis line. Workman documented the project on the Shroomery forum. His first post about the cross is dated January 18, 2006, and in December 2007 he posted results for what he called “APE 1.0,” noting that it still “tends towards blue caps.” A 2024 DoubleBlind interview with Workman gives the same timeline, with the work starting in 2005 and 2006 and the first APE line ready in late 2007.
Penis Envy vs Albino Penis Envy: what the mushrooms look like
The shape is shared and the color is not, so Penis Envy vs Albino Penis Envy is easy to call from a clear photograph.
- Shape (both): a thick, dense stem and a small, rounded cap that often stays partly closed at maturity, with the cap edge close to the stem. Neither looks like a typical wild cubensis.
- Penis Envy color: the brown to golden-brown tones of an ordinary pigmented cubensis, in an unusual shape.
- APE color: white to ivory, often with a bluish cast on the cap. DoubleBlind describes the caps as white with bluish tones that turn “silver blue when dried,” and Workman’s own 2007 notes say the early line leaned toward blue caps.
A white mushroom with a normal open cap and an ordinary stem is not APE, even if it is albino. That describes other albino lines, such as Jack Frost, which has APE as one parent but inherited a wide, open cap from its other parent.
Spore prints, syringes and spores
Both strains release very few spores, for the same reason: APE inherited the Penis Envy form, with its small, partly closed cap and poor spore release. Prints of either strain are faint or hard to collect, which is why Penis Envy has been kept going by cloning rather than by spores.
The pigment difference changes what you see. Penis Envy spores are purple-brown, the normal cubensis color, so a Penis Envy print is dark when you can get one. APE spores carry little or no pigment. DoubleBlind’s 2023 profile of Albino A+ describes the spores of true albino varieties, naming APE, as “white or transparent.”
In a syringe, that means an APE spore syringe usually looks clearer than a Penis Envy spore syringe, and both look lighter than a syringe of a strain such as Golden Teacher. The spores are still there. Our guide to what a spore syringe is explains why the look of the liquid varies.
Under a light microscope, the spores have the same shape and size. Published descriptions of P. cubensis give spores roughly 11 to 17 micrometers long, smooth and sub-ellipsoid (an oval flattened on one side), with a germ pore at one end. Penis Envy spores show up purple-brown against the background. APE spores are nearly transparent, so they are easy to miss on a slide.
Why APE is white
Workman’s forum notes show what he expected the albino trait to do. In his first post, on January 18, 2006, he wrote that no albino or Penis Envy-shaped caps were expected in the first generation, and in a follow-up the same day he added: “Apparently Penis shaped caps and Albinism are both recessive traits.” DoubleBlind’s 2024 account makes the same point and notes that this complicated the project. In plain terms, both traits stay hidden in a first cross and show up again only in later generations, which is how recessive traits behave.
We could not find a published study that identifies the gene behind albinism in any cubensis strain, so the breeding record is the best evidence available. For how albino lines differ from pale “leucistic” ones, which keep dark spores, see our guide to albino vs leucistic mushrooms.
Side-by-side comparison
The table sets out Penis Envy vs Albino Penis Envy on each of the points above.
| Penis Envy | Albino Penis Envy | |
|---|---|---|
| Species | Psilocybe cubensis | Psilocybe cubensis |
| Origin | Amazonian spores from the early 1970s, stabilized by Rich Gee (his account) | Penis Envy × PF Albino, bred by John Workman, 2006 to 2007 |
| Shape | Thick stem, small cap that stays partly closed | Same as Penis Envy |
| Color | Brown tones, like ordinary cubensis | White to ivory, often with blue tones |
| Spore print | Purple-brown, sparse | Nearly clear, sparse |
| Spores under a microscope | Purple-brown, easy to see once found | Nearly transparent, easy to miss |
| Syringe | Lighter than most strains | Often looks nearly clear |
Related strains
APE has become a parent itself. The best-documented example is Jack Frost, which the breeder Dave Wombat made by crossing APE with his own line of True Albino Teacher. It is white with blue gills at maturity, but it has an open, wavy cap instead of the Penis Envy shape. Our Albino Penis Envy guide lists other lines that carry APE in their names, and Golden Teacher vs Penis Envy compares the parent strain with the best-known classic cubensis.
Legal status of both strains
Penis Envy and Albino Penis Envy spores contain no psilocybin or psilocin, so under federal law and the law of 46 states they are not a controlled substance; the DEA confirmed the federal position in writing in January 2024. California and Florida restrict spores, Georgia and Idaho ban them, and we do not ship Psilocybe spores to those four states. Germinating spores is illegal under federal law everywhere. Laws change, so check the current law where you live. Our state-by-state legal guide has every statute.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Penis Envy and Albino Penis Envy?
The difference is pigment. They share the same thick stem and small, mostly closed cap, but Penis Envy has ordinary brown coloring with purple-brown spores and APE is white with nearly clear spores.
Who created Albino Penis Envy?
John Workman, who crossed Penis Envy with an albino line called PF Albino. He documented the cross on the Shroomery forum starting in January 2006 and posted results for “APE 1.0” in December 2007.
Is Albino Penis Envy a true albino?
Yes. Its spores carry little or no pigment, which is the test that separates albino strains from leucistic ones. Leucistic strains are pale but still drop dark spores.
Why does my APE spore syringe look empty?
APE spores are nearly transparent and the strain releases few of them, so there is little to see in the barrel. The spores are still in the syringe.
Can you tell Penis Envy and APE spores apart under a microscope?
Yes, by color. The shape and size are the same, but Penis Envy spores are purple-brown and APE spores are nearly transparent.
Why do both strains produce so few spores?
Both have small caps that stay partly closed and release few spores. APE inherited that form from Penis Envy.
Are Penis Envy and Albino Penis Envy spores legal?
Yes, for microscopy, in 46 states. California, Florida, Georgia and Idaho have their own spore laws, and we do not ship to those four states.
Sources
- Busby M., “The Origins of Albino Penis Envy, According to the Man Who Created It” (DoubleBlind Magazine, August 1, 2024; updated August 7, 2024), interview with John Workman. doubleblindmag.com
- Shroomery forum archive (not linked): thread #5194890, “PF Albino and Penis Envy Cross Breeding,” started by Workman on January 18, 2006, with his follow-up posts that day on recessive traits; thread #7777258, “Albino Penis Envy APE 1.0,” started by Workman on December 19, 2007.
- Mandrake K., “Penis Envy Mushrooms: The Origin Story” (DoubleBlind Magazine, February 22, 2021; updated March 27, 2024), on Rich Gee’s account, sparse spores and APE’s appearance, including its “silver blue” color when dried. doubleblindmag.com
- Bermejo R., “Penis Envy Mushrooms” (Psychedelic Spotlight, August 12, 2023; updated June 2, 2024; not linked), on Gee, Jules Stevens and the source of the spores.
- Brand D.S., “Albino A+ Mushrooms” (DoubleBlind Magazine, September 29, 2023), on the spores of true albino varieties. doubleblindmag.com
- Weiss S., “Jack Frost Mushrooms” (DoubleBlind Magazine, December 28, 2023; updated January 23, 2024), and Wietstock C., “Jack Frost mushroom” (GreenState, May 1, 2024), on Jack Frost’s APE parentage. doubleblindmag.com · greenstate.com
- “Psilocybe cubensis,” Wikipedia, and DoubleBlind Magazine, “How to Identify Psilocybe Cubensis Look-Alikes,” on the species description and spore size and shape. wikipedia.org · doubleblindmag.com
- Kurzbaum E. et al. (2025). “Exploring Psilocybe cubensis Strains.” Journal of Fungi 11(2):99. PMC11856550
- DEA Diversion Control Division letter on the status of spores (January 2, 2024). PDF, and Marijuana Moment’s report on the letter. marijuanamoment.net
Psilocybe cubensis spore syringes
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