Coprinopsis picacea - Magpie Inkcap

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

It is always a delight to come across a Magpie Inkcap. So often are they solitary or so spaced that those of us who like to photograph our finds have little prospect of capturing a photogenic group (a ‘parliament’ of magpies) that we can crow about to others!

The wonderful patterning of white or silvery grey on a shiny dark-brown background makes this one of the most beautiful mushrooms to photograph for reproduction as a monochrome print. Like all inkcaps the fruitbodies are short lived, and so a patient observer could have an educational day watching a cap expand from an elongated egg to conical and then bell-like as the cottony universal veil remnant breaks into separate patches to reveal the glossy dark background. As with other large inkcaps, the gills of the Magpie Inkcap deliquesce, a process which aids spore dispersal particularly in wet weather.

Note: inkcap is sometimes written as ink-cap or ink cap, and in the USA the terms inky cap or inky-cap are used.

Identification guide

Cap	3 to 7cm across and 7 to 12cm tall; initially egg-shaped, becoming bell shaped, the margins turning outwards before blackening and deliquescing from the rim; very dark grey-brown glossy background covered with silvery-white fibrils that separate into patches as the cap expands.
Gills	Adnate or free; crowded; white, turning reddish and then black before deliquescing.
Stem	10 to 20cm long and 0.7 to 1.5cm dia.; base often slightly bulbous; white with a floccose surface; no ring.
Spore print	Black.
Odour/taste	Not distinctive.
Habitat	Generally as solitary specimens or well spaced in small groups, Magpie Inkcaps occur most often in deciduous woodland, particularly under Beech trees and less frequently under oaks. They are rare finds in Britain and Ireland, where they are mainly restricted to alkaline areas. Occasionally I find them also in damp, well-shaded grassland where deciduous hardwood debris has collected at the edge of a floodplain.
Season	May to November.
Occurrence	Infrequent.
Similar species	It would be difficult to mistake this lovely inkcap fpr any other species once its cap has begun expanding to reveal the glossy brown background underlying the white patches.