Fungus Fact Friday

Tagged: coprinoid

agaric mushrooms with an inky cap morphology

Coprinellus domesticus 0

Fungus Fact

#219: Coprinellus domesticus

One of the most unusual things I found in my first year of mushroom hunting was a log covered with a layer of orange fuzz – reminiscent of shag carpeting, which looks out-of-place in a natural setting. After much searching, I discovered that the fuzz was produced by a mushroom: Coprinellus domesticus. The mushroom itself is an inky cap, but the fuzz – called an ozonium – lasts longer and is therefore easier to find. Nobody knows why the fungus makes an ozonium, but it certainly makes identification easier. You might also find this mushroom fruiting in your bathroom. As its species name implies, the fungus routinely appears in wet areas of homes. The mushroom has a few common names that are used occasionally. These include the “Firerug Inkcap” (primarily British), “Retro Inky” (from MushroomExpert.Com), and “Domestic Inkcap” (translated from French).

Coprinellus disseminatus 0

Fungus Fact

#214: Coprinellus disseminatus

Coprinellus disseminatus is a tiny umbrella-like mushroom that makes up for its small stature by producing thousands of mushrooms at once. I found one stump last weekend that I estimate produced between 6,000 and 10,000 mushrooms. There were so many mushrooms so close together that from a distance they looked more like a single large crust fungus than lots of tiny mushrooms. C. disseminatus is also remarkable because it is an inky cap but its gills do not liquefy. You can actually get a spore print from this mushroom instead of a gooey black glob.1 Despite that, C. disseminatus disappears quickly like any other inky cap. Once, in my early days of mushroom hunting, I passed a stump with a few hundred C. disseminatus mushrooms in the morning. When I revisited it that afternoon, I found no traces whatsoever of the inky caps.

Coprinellus micaceus deliquescing 1

Fungus Fact

#192: Coprinellus micaceus, The Mica Cap

Coprinellus micaceus, commonly known as “The Mica Cap” or “The Glistening Inkcap” is one of the rare inky caps (FFF#177) that is easy to identify. These medium-sized mushrooms appear in dense clusters on dead wood and feature brown caps coated with a distinctive dusting of salt-like or mica-like granules (hence the scientific and common names). Mica Caps are beautiful when young, since the shiny granules make it look like fairy dust was lightly sprinkled over the mushrooms. The unique combination of size, habitat, and fairy dust makes C. micaceus instantly recognizable.

Mycena leaiana 4

Fungus Fact

#027: Gilled Mushrooms (Agarics)

The gilled mushrooms, informally referred to as ‘agarics,’ are the type of mushroom with which we are most familiar. The most common edible mushrooms (white/button/portabella mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms), Amanita muscaria – the most recognizable mushroom in the world and the inspiration for almost all mushroom art – and the ‘magic mushrooms’ are all gilled mushrooms. All these mushrooms share one feature: vertical plates of spore-producing tissue stacked under a sterile cap.

Coprinellus micaceus deliquescing 8

Fungus Fact

#177: Coprinoid Mushrooms

Coprinoid mushrooms are easy to recognize, at least in theory. Many coprinoid mushrooms have gills that liquefy (“deliquesce”) at maturity, which readily distinguishes them from normal agarics. These fungi produce purple-brown to black spores, so liquefied gills often end up looking like an inky mess. As a result, coprinoid mushrooms are often called “Inky Caps.” Coprinoid mushrooms with gills that do not deliquesce can be identified by their central stipes, dark spores, and relatively thin and fragile flesh.