What Gates in a name usually signals
Gates at the end of a cubensis name is usually read as a family marker. Breeders tend to keep the word when they cross or isolate from an earlier Gates line, so the name hints that Gates genetics sit somewhere in the pedigree. Lucid Gates, Ocean Gates and Black Betty Gates all follow that habit. It is a habit rather than a rule: nobody registers strain names, the vendors do not give a single origin for the word, and some lines with a Gates parent carry a completely different name.
The furthest back the listings on Culture Cave go is Pearly Gates, and many of the other Gates lines name Pearly Gates or one of its descendants as a parent. This post takes each Gates line on the site in turn: what its vendor says it looks like and who lists it. For the general rules behind names like these, see how to read a strain name.
Pearly Gates and Emerald Gates
Sporeworks describes Pearly Gates as a cross of True Albino Teacher (TAT) and "the original homestead PE variety Melmac", made by Michael Montgomery; Fungus Frequency gives the same parents and credits the isolation to him too. It is a true albino line: Sporeworks groups it with Jack Frost and TAT as varieties whose spores carry no pigment, so expect a faint print and a syringe that looks nearly clear. Sporeworks lists it as an isolate syringe and Fungus Frequency as a research plate. The Melmak half of the pedigree is covered in the Mak and Melmak family post.
Albino Emerald Gates is a Dino Spores isolated syringe. Dino Spores describes Emerald Gates as a backcross of Melmak OG x Pearly Gates, originally from James Cruz, and its own line as an albino isolation from that project. A backcross pairs a hybrid with one of its own parents, here Pearly Gates back to the Melmak side, which pulls the line closer to that parent.
Pearly Gates also has children without Gates in the name, the clearest sign that the convention is a habit. Dino Spores lists Bit of Heaven as Timbit x Pearly Gates from Jeff Karas, with long, gnarled stems and bullet-shaped caps. Hyphal Mind lists Torii as an early generation cross of Pearly Gates and Minami Okinawa by Lemegton Labs. Mr Rogers Labz lists Aether as Black Cap Orch x Emerald Gates, and Frosty Pearlz 393 is covered in the Jack Frost family tree.
Lucid Gates and the lines bred from it
Lucid Gates is sold as isolated syringes by Mushrealm USA and Mushrealm UK, as part of what they call their ACS collection. Its pedigree has not been published in any detail. Telly Monster Myco's Icy Gates listing describes it as carrying Penis Envy and True Albino Teacher lineage, the same pairing as Pearly Gates, but no listing on the site spells out a link between the two, so treat that as a reading of the name rather than a documented fact.
Four Gates lines name Lucid Gates as a parent. Ocean Gates is listed by Dino Spores, as isolated syringes and swabs, as Lucid Gates x Tidal Wave by the cultivator Sean Giuliani, and TecheGenetics lists it too. Rango Gates is described by Telly Monster Myco as a cross of Rango and Lucid Gates by James Cruz, a lineage that brings Albino Penis Envy together with Lucid Gates; TecheGenetics and Summer Breeze Mycology list it as plates and liquid culture without notes of their own.
Icy Gates, Telly Monster Myco's cross of Lucid Gates and Iceberg, is the one Gates line that also sits on the Jack Frost tree. Toque Gates is a Mr Rogers Labz swab set of Toque F8 x Lucid Gates that the vendor calls "a one of a kind beauty"; the Toque side is in Toque and the Toque crosses.
Black Betty Gates and its offshoots
Black Betty Gates is a What The Fungi liquid culture. The vendor lists it as an Albino Emerald Gates iso by Dichotomous Keys, with its own clone iso on top, so it is a selection out of the Pearly Gates side rather than a new cross. Black Forest Cultures shortens it to BBG, and it has become a parent in its own right.
- Colonial Gates 247: What The Fungi's original cross of Tasmanian x Black Betty Gates, marked as a 247g iso. On What The Fungi's labels that number is the weight in grams of the specimen the clone was taken from.
- Lucy's Gates: What The Fungi's original cross of Indian Graveyard x Albino Emerald Gates. Telly Monster Myco describes Indian Graveyard as a Shakti flower mutation crossed with Ghost, with unusual colouring, thick, dense stems and warped caps.
- Meridian Gates: a Black Forest Cultures plate and isolate, listed only as BBG x HB (HBP on one listing). The vendor uses BBG for Black Betty Gates on its other listings and does not expand HB.
- Galactic Gates: a Black Forest Cultures liquid culture listed as Mac Galactic x Black Betty Gates, an original experimental cross by Michaelogicals. Telly Monster Myco describes Mac Galactic as a hybrid built on Melmac genetics, with thick fruits, pale caps and twisted forms, so by the vendors' accounts this line carries Melmak from two directions.
Black Forest Cultures has also taken BBG in directions that drop the Gates name: Black Wolf Avatar is listed as an isolation of Black Betty Gates, and Strider as PESA x Galactic Gates.
Astral Gates
Astral Gates is a liquid culture from Summer Breeze Mycology in Australia, listed without a description. The name is the only clue. By the usual habit it carries Gates genetics, but which Gates line, and what it was crossed with, the listing does not say, so ask the vendor before you assume a pedigree.
Reading a Gates label
Treat Gates as a hint about the family, then read the rest of the label for the actual cross. Ocean, Rango, Icy and Toque Gates name Lucid Gates as a parent. Colonial, Meridian and Galactic Gates name Black Betty Gates. Black Betty Gates and Lucy's Gates go back to Albino Emerald Gates, and Pearly Gates sits underneath that albino branch. Astral Gates names nothing at all.
Where a Gates line is described as albino, expect a faint print and pale, translucent spores under the microscope; where the vendor says nothing about colour, do not assume either way. The spores themselves are ordinary cubensis, subellipsoid with a germ pore. Most of these lines are sold as isolates, so the label should also say whose isolate it is. Every pedigree in this post is the vendor's own account, and none has been documented outside the hobby.
Psilocybe and Panaeolus spores on Culture Cave are sold for microscopy and taxonomy use only, and buyers must know their local law before they order; the UK legality guide covers the basics for British buyers.