A Few Minutes of Mycology

What do I think when I find mushrooms in my garden?

I think that I must be doing something right by allowing leaves to stay on the beds and rot down into leaf mold each winter.

I also think that garden fairies are nearby watching me so I best be careful and leave the mushrooms alone.

Today while weeding, I found two different mushrooms of interest.

I looked up the first one—a strapping big mushroom at least six inches tall,—via my phone. It identified it as Coprinus comatus with common names like Lawyer’s Wig and Shaggy Ink Cap. Apparently, if you pick it or after it releases its spores, it will turn black and dissolve itself within a matter of hours.

Rest assured, I will check on it again tomorrow to see if it has done that.

Apparently, if it is Shaggy Ink Cap—if my phone id is correct— it is edible when young, but you’d want to cook it straight away because of that little habit of turning black and dissolving itself after you pick it.

I will NOT be eating it.

Nor will I be eating this mushroom.

My phone has identified this one as Coprinellus disseminatus, with common names such as Fairy Ink Cap, Fairy Bonnet, and Trooping Crumble Cap.

If that is what it is, then it is also edible, or rather not poisonous. Because it is so small, you’d need quite a few to make a meal out of it.

Again, I am not eating either one. The only mushroom I’ve ever found in my garden that I was tempted to eat was a morel mushroom. Yes, honest to goodness, I found a morel mushroom last spring and two springs before that. In my garden. In a secret location that only I know the whereabouts of.

That morel mushroom really made me quite proud of the environment I’m creating in my garden because morel mushrooms are supposed to be quite picky and discerning as to where they will grow. And at least a few have chosen my wee little garden.

All these mushrooms, which admittedly is just a few, has piqued my interest in mycology, the study of mushrooms. Perhaps I need to find a good fungi book for winter reading. Any suggestions?

UPDATE:

By the next morning, my Lawyer’s Wig aka Shaggy Ink Cap looked like this.

I’m glad I saw it yesterday. I expect it will be gone before the end of the day. Slowly dissolving itself.

In the meantime, I’m trying to decide which common name to use for the other little mushrooms: Fairy Ink Cap, Fairy Bonnet, or Trooping Crumble Cap? What’s your preference?