My Special Friends: Dunkler Shirmpilz & Common Inkcap (Coprinus atramentarius & Lepiota felina)

If I were to find every single mushroom and fungus detailed in my new Mushrooms book, I would have 1,247 specimens more than I have located already.


But I am not going to let this fact discourage me whatsoever.


Today I met my special friends again in the backyard: the Common Inkcap (Coprinus atramentarius) and my suspicious looking friend Lepiota felina (apparently it has the common name of Dunkler Shirmpilz, which I think sounds rather awkward. I wouldn't quite know what to say if I was introduced at a party to Dunkler Shirmpilz).


Lepiota felina belongs to a group of mushrooms (Lepiota) containing some deadly poisonous characters.


It's funny, I wonder if we somehow contain genetic memories or some hard-wired aversion to certain things (snakes?), because when we moved into the house last year, I noticed a few of these mushrooms growing on the hard-packed ground behind the air conditioning unit, and thought "They look dangerous...".


And this was before I knew anything about mushrooms, except for those on pizza and those illicit ones that make fairies appear and trees develop personalities.


A sibling of Lepiota felina is Lepiota brunneoincarnata, also known by the cute name of "Deadly Dapperling".


It's deadly poisonous.


Details of Dunkler Shirmpilz (heck, I'd go around poisoning people too if I was given that name):

location: North America, Europe
edibility: Inedible
fungus colour: Brown, Black or blackish
normal size: Less than 5cm
cap type: Conical or nearly so
stem type: Ring on stem
flesh: Mushroom has distinct or odd smell (non mushroomy)
spore colour: White, cream or yellowish
habitat: Grows in woods, Grows on the ground

Lepiota felina (Pers. ex Fr.) Karst Dunkler Shirmpilz. Cap 2–3cm across, slightly umbonate, the whole cap is dark brown to almost black when in bud, the cuticle breaks up into minute erect scales as the cap expands. Stem 30–50 x 2–4mm, fibrillose, whitish sprinkled with blackish scales towards the base; ring membranous, white on upper surface, dark grey-brown below. Flesh white, becoming tinged brownish. Smell strongly fungusy. Gills white. Cheilocystidia thin-walled, clavate to obtusely fusiform, hyaline, surface squamules formed of tufts of elongated hairs. Spore print white. Spores ovoid, 6.5–7.5 x 3.5–4um. Habitat in coniferous woods. Season autumn. Uncommon. Not edible -avoid. Distribution, America and Europe.

From the photos, you'll notice a few of the salient characteristics described above.


A ring on the stem. It grows on the ground (well, you can't see that, but trust me it does...), as opposed to growing on dead wood. It has gills (not pores) and they are white. Look closely and you'll see tufts of elongaged hairs growing from the top of the cap (on which there are 'surface squamules'). I didn't take a spore print, but I'm pretty sure this fits the bill. Season autumn throws me off a bit, but it is getting a bit cooler around here. What the photos do not capture is the very strong smell emitted by this little life form. Not unpleasant, but a very concentrated 'mushroomy' smell.

Well enough of that.

I've already described Coprinus atramentarius, but here are the details from the Rogers Mushroom book:

location: North America, Europe
edibility: Poisonous/Suspect
fungus colour: White to cream
normal size: 5-15cm
cap type: Conical or nearly so
stem type: Ring on stem
spore colour: Purplish to black
habitat: Grows in woods, Grows on the ground, Grows on wood

Coprinus atramentarius (Bull. ex Fr.) Fr. Tippler's Bane, Grauer Falstentintling, Coprin noir d'encre, Common Inkcap. Cap 3-7cm high, ovoid at first, then broadly conical when expanded, with the margin irregularly puckered at first, then becoming split; gray to gray-brown; dry, smooth or silky with minute scales or veil remnants, especially near the center. Gills free, crowded, broad; white then lavender-gray then inky black and soon deliquescing. Stem 70-170 x 9-20mm, hollow; whitish; dry, silky-fibrous; fibrous white partial veil leaving ring zone near base. Odor faint and pleasant or none. Spores ellipsoid, smooth, with pore at tip, 7-11 x 4-6µ. Deposit black. Habitat usually in clusters on the ground near rotting or buried wood or in grass. Found widely distributed throughout North America and Europe. Season May-September (November-April in California). Edible but dangerous because it causes alarming symptoms (nausea, palpitations) when taken in conjunction with alcohol; indeed, it has been given to alcoholics to cause these symptoms and eventually cure their habit. Comment Good black drawing ink used to be made from the deliquesced caps by boiling the black "ink" with a little water and cloves.

Suffice it to say, I had chicken pot pie and mashed potatoes for dinner.


Neither of which contained any mushrooms.

Cheers,

Mungo