#ink caps

[spectralrxbbit]

🖤

[thunderstruck9]

Fiona Long (British, 1978), Shaggy Ink Caps, 2021. Ink Cap ink and Indian ink on paper, 29.7 x 21 cm.

[oliviarosaline]

Mica Cap Mushrooms

Coprinellus sect. Micacei

Growing at the base of an old cottonwood tree in the woods.

April 3rd, 2024

St. Louis County, Missouri, USA

Olivia R. Myers

@oliviarosaline

[aldercaps]

humanity restored. look at these ink caps I found on my walk

[razehider]

i've been entertaining myself by taking some before and after pics of fungi around the area. this is a shaggy mane, Coprinus comatus, and the pictures are taken less than 24 hours apart. they're also called ink caps, along with some other mushrooms that look exactly the same to my untrained eye and used to be in the same genus but are apparently not even in the same family. i've never made a single attempt to understand fungus taxonomy and i'm not going to start now

this is a different individual, but a nice example of the "intermediate" stage between the innocent baby popsicle and the withered inky mess in the two pictures above. these things are so short-lived that they're notorious for straight up dissolving shortly after being picked by foragers so it was fairly lucky timing on my part

[blackswallowtailbutterfly]

Ink Caps--Coprinus, Coprinopsis, and Coprinellus

They don't just grow in shit, I promise (in fact I don't think I've ever seen them growing in shit...). Photos are all mine, all unedited. The reason the ones of Coprinellus micacea look so much better is because of the lighting that time of day and also because I used my digital SLR camera. All the rest were taken with my old Moto G phone camera.

Coprinellus disseminatus, the fairy ink cap. They're edible but you'd need a lot of them because they're very small. Luckily they tend to be numerous! Good in soup or pasta sauce. They crumble really easily, so you want them in a paper bag you can easily shake them out of into a pan.

Coprinellus micaceus, the glistening ink cap. Also edible, and bigger than their aptly named cousins, but get 'em quickly and cook them because they will autodigest quickly and leave an inky mess. Good on pizza or in pasta sauce.

Coprinopsis atramentaria, the common ink cap. Edible as well and bigger than Coprinellus, but again you want to collect and cook those quickly. Good in pasta sauce. And the young ones specifically are really really good with mac and cheese, especially if you put fresh chives or green onions on top afterward.

Coprinopsis variegata, the scaly ink cap. The young ones look an awful lot like puffballs. The older ones look like shaggy manes to the untrained eye. The scales will fall off with handling. These also are edible. Excellent in a creamy soup.

Coprinus comatus, the shaggy mane. Choice edible, but again, grab 'em quickly. Did you know my very first picture of a shaggy mane (left), I didn't even know it was a shaggy mane? Because I wasn't foraging yet. Good with pizza, in mushroom gravy, pasta sauce, or wherever else you'd want to use mushroooms. :)

Word of caution: ALL edible wild mushrooms need to be cooked. Even those that won't make you sick immediately can have longterm effects. Cook them and cook them well. You pretty much have to try to overcook a mushroom. So cook them properly.

A secondary word of caution: all edible ink caps with the exception of the shaggy mane don't react well with alcohol. The recommendation is that you don't consume ink caps within three days of having consumed alcohol, one way or the other. That being said, it does vary between individuals. I've been fine with no more than a few hours between a single drink and a meal with them in it.

Word of ethics: always leave at a third of the young mushrooms you find, and only in a large flush. If there's only one, leave it be.

And not so much caution, but for convenience: collect quickly and cook quickly. Some do it faster than others, but if you have mature specimens, they will autodigest into ink. Some people have used them as ink, if that's what you're after, go for it, but if you mean to actually eat them, you need to apply heat, as that disrupts that process. Another fun thing, though! If you get mature specimens that have only just begin to autodigest, you can cook them into a black sauce and even mix with flour to make black pasta!

[frogofalltime]

shaggy ink caps in the rain

[something-greeeen]

Ink caps forever have a spot in my heart, they were the first mushroom that got me into mycology. <3

Learning facts about mushrooms is so fun hehe

freaky fungi fact - mycology vocab :-)

deliquescence : the process of certain fungi (most often ink caps) where they turn to liquid.

this process is observed in a handful of different fungi !! as their caps mature, they furl inward & turn to a spore-filled, inky liquid.

yes, this liquid can be harvested & used for actual pen ink. :-) just make sure to add preservatives to avoid it causing a rotten smell.

to use it in a sentence : the mushrooms above are experiencing deliquescence ; they are deliquescing !! ink caps are deliquescent.

[fledgesfancies]

So we had to photograph mushroom anatomy for some scavenger hunt points. Or put up silly pictures of things which fit the terms but weren't actually mushrooms. I decided to build my own mushroom/toadstool in Minecraft and then label the parts. The whole process - from updating Minecraft since the last time I played (probably before Microsoft took over!) to working out why it wouldn't load, to building the mushroom, to getting a decent image, to resizing and putting it up here - took about six times as long as just drawing a diagram. But y'know. Commitment!

And here's the same shroom but with a spire shaped cap for another illustration. With little lamps hung on it for lighting.

Pictures of the Common Ink Cap (Coprinopsis atramentaria) which is widespread in the UK. It grows wherever there is buried wood. (Photos from the Woodland Trust UK.)

Historically it was used to make ink for important documents. It would guard against forgery as the spores could be detected under a microscope!

It is edible, but also known as ‘tippler’s bane’ because it contains an enzyme which inhibits the ability of the liver to process alcohol. If alcohol is consumed up to three days before or after eating it, it will cause extremely severe hangover symptoms!

And a picture of the Wood Ear or Jelly Ear fungus (Auricularia auricula-judae) also from the Woodland Trust and also common in the UK. They grow mostly on elder (also beech, sycamore & ash) and can survive after being frozen solid!

It is also known as Judas's Ear because the elder is the tree upon which Judas hanged himself after betraying Christ to his executioners. The charming legend is that the ‘ears’ which emerge from elder wood represent his tormented soul!

'Veil' was another anatomical term, so I found this amazing picture of a Bridal Veil Stinkhorn (Phallus indusiatus) on atlasobscura. Also known as bamboo mushrooms, this species is edible, but only the stems - the stinky gelatinous cap and veil are stripped off first. Wikipedia shows how the veil looks more commonly, on any species of young mushrooms as they are just sprouting.

More Fungal Foraging posts to follow! I've got to say, this hunt has taken me longer than the entire Plague-fest Riot of Rot scavenger hunt in the coli, from which I won EIGHT badges. This hunt is only getting me one badge. You could pay for it instead, but I was determined to earn it, and the idea seemed fun at the time. It is less fun now, but I am stubborn. This is, incidentally, both the first and last RL scavenger hunt I have - and shall ever have - taken part in! I'd be cool with it if you could just submit links like a normal person, but having to photograph the screen with an ID card, what's up with that?!

[fairydropart]

Shaggy Mane Mushroom Ghosts

[daily-grian]

Mother Spore moment

[tinsil]

so much to see at the festival!

[emtrobarasalaplatja3]

[promqueendyke]

creemore, ontario david herzog + should have known better, sufjan stevens

[skeletondremmer]

just some none fandom art for once in awhile

none background version

[daddydicktampa]