The Shroom Room

Often, I will find a mushroom and never be able to work out what it is. I will spend days searching the internet and looking in books, but never able to solve the mystery. It can be really frustrating. This happened to me at the beginning of May, when I was walking home from an appointment and saw a white mushroom poking out of the grass nearby. It was the first time I'd seen a mushroom in over a month, so I was pretty excited about it. I did what I usually do: took pictures, examined it, made notes. Then I went home to do some research, and couldn't find anything. So I forgot about it. Yesterday, whilst I was doing research for another mushroom, I accidentally clicked on a wrong link and ended up on a page describing the Milky Conecap , or Conocybe apala.  I had an "aha!" moment, as I recognised instantly that it was the same mushroom I had spent so long trying to find a name for. Let me tell you, there's nothing more satisfying than putting the final pieces...

Spring is finally upon us, and whilst greenery is emerging and bright flowers are peeping through the cracks that winter has left, things are still somewhat quiet in the fungal world. With the main mushroom season being late summer and autumn, there is a way to go before we can see mushrooms at every corner. However, as the weather is beginning to warm, there are a few species that are starting to emerge. One such mushroom is the  Common Inkcap , or  Coprinopsis atramentaria . Common Inkcaps have a long season, beginning to appear in spring and continuing to fruit until the end of autumn. Like the majority of their Inkcap cousins , their caps expand outwards, eventually becoming an inky liquid.         They tend to form in groups and grow on buried wood. Most of the ones I've found have been under trees in grassy areas, such as parks or fields. I like to think their caps look like arrows pointing out of the soil.        ...

Glistening inkcaps are my favourite winter mushrooms. When it seems cold, dark and wet every day, a glistening inkcap poking out of a log is sure to cheer you up. They are light and shimmery, like something magical. Even though I have so many pictures of them, I always stop to take more whenever I see them, because they truly brighten my day. A cluster on a log Members of the Coprinus family - also known as Inkcaps - are quite different from other species, because most of them "auto-digest". This means that towards the end of their life, their caps roll upwards, turning into an inky-black liquid, hence the name.  Inkcaps were the first family I was able to identify quickly, as they are rather unique and therefore difficult to confuse with other genera. It is possible, however, to confuse mushrooms within the genus, so as always it's best to go about identifying with an open mind and above all, caution. The gills are turning black, indicating the auto-...