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| INKY CAP, AKA SHAGGY MANE, MUSHROOM |
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| INKY LIQUID CONTAINING THE MUSHROOM'S SPORES |
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| TRY GETTING THE INK OFF YOUR FINGERS |
For as wet as it has been this fall, there have not been many mushrooms along the Bafield roadsides. A few weeks ago I wrote a post about a large and quite beautiful Amanita but there have been few of them or other mushrooms. I have seen a few inky cap, also called shaggy mane, mushrooms. I am no mushroom expert, but I think I can safely identify the one pictured as Coprinus comatus, a gill mushroom.
Both common names are quite descriptive of the mushroom, the "inky cap" being I think the most telling, for as the mushroom ages enough for the cap to expand and expose the gills underneath it self-destructructs, becoming a black, inky mass of spores. It is said to "deliquesce," a word I have loved since Chemistry 1a, but can never manage to get into a sentence about anything.
This mushroom is reportedly edible and delicious, but one would have to cook and eat it shortly after picking it, as it deteriorates very fast. Also, it is one of the mushrooms that can interact quite unpleasantly with alcohol, and I am not about to give up my glass or two of wine with dinner to enjoy it. In China this mushroom is raised commercially. Maybe it goes better with tea.
In any case, it is a beautiful and rather mysterious living thing. One could write a poem about it with its own ink. Shelly wrote a poem, purportedly about this mushroom, but I didn't understand it well enough or like it enough to present it here.
I suppose I could eat an inky cap, have a glass of wine, and read the poem again and see if I got anything more out of it.
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