Shaggy Ink Cap

Shaggy Ink Cap — Coprinus comatus

The Shaggy Ink Cap, also affectionately called the Lawyer's Wig, is one of our most distinctive fungi, emerging from the ground like a tall, white cylinder covered in shaggy, upturned scales. Its most remarkable trick is auto-digestion: once mature, the gills dissolve from the bottom upwards into a thick, black, inky fluid that carries the spores away to be scattered by rain or insects — nature's own liquid dispersal system. It springs up quickly in grassy places, appearing suddenly on lawns, verges and disturbed ground, often in groups, and is edible when young and firm — but only if eaten before it begins to turn into ink! This rapid transformation gave rise to the old saying that you should never take an ink cap mushroom for granted, because by the time you get home it may have turned into nothing more than a puddle of black fluid on the grass.