WELSH WITCH'S GARDEN DECEMBER 2004

I have been seized by an sudden interest in fungi especially after reading about the Amanita Muscaria...I wondered what else magical could be found in the depths of the piney woods!

Lawyer' s Wig or Shaggy Cap

Information from Mushrooms and other fungi by Dr M Svrcek & Dr J Kubicka

Coprinus comatus

Lululerous and mixed woods. Rare. Coprinaceae IV Shaggy Caps, Lawyer's Wig Coprinus comatzjs(MflLL. ex Fa.) S. F. GRAY

Young cap is cylindrical, 5- 10 cm tall, 3-6 cm wide, later bell-shaped, finally expended; white, pinkish to pale ochre with silky cuticle torn into large, free scales. Gills are free, dense, at first white, later pink, then black and turning into a dark pulp when ripe. Stipe is bulbous, 1-2 cm thick, white, filamentous to scaly, with a narrow and loose ring. Flesh is white. Spore powder is black. Spores 10-15 x 7-8 ~tm, ellipsoid, opaque black, smooth, with a germinating pore. It grows usually in clusters on compost heaps, well manured ground outside forests. Fruit-bodies develop quickly and soon dissolve into pulp. Inedible.

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