Parasola auricoma (Pat.) Redhead, Vilgalys & Hopple

Parasola auricoma growing in woodchip mulch

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

Parasola auricoma (formerly called Coprinus auricoma) is a short-lived delicate member of the inkcap group of fungi. It, together with two or three lookalikes that are difficult to separate without examining them using a microscope) is easily confused with the Pleated Inkcap (also referred to as the Little Japanese Parasol) Parasola plicatilis.

Parasola auricoma is an inkcap of woodland habitats, where it grows among twigs and leaf litter. In parks and gardens this little mushroom is common in flowerbeds covered in woodchip mulch.

The picture shown above is of mature specimens, while those on the left are immature fruitbodies from the same location. The colour change between young and older specimens is one of the factors that makes identification of Parasola mushrooms from macroscopic characters alone very difficult.

All of the Parasola mushrooms are short-lived fruitbodies, looking at their very best for two or three hours at the most, and rather bless than that in dry hot weather. So, if you find a nice photogenic group of these neat little fungi at a time when you haven't got a camera with you, it's no good planning on returning the next day, because for certain the caps will have either collapsed and the stems folded over or, most lilely, the whole group will have disappeared without trace. (Of course, there is always the possibilty that some more fruitbodies will have erupted from the same fungal mycellium!)

This little inkcap was described in *** by Narcisse Theophile Patouillard (1854 - 1926), who called it Coprinus auricomus, a scientific name by which it was known until 2001, when the DNA-based research findings of Redhead, Vilgalys & Hopple were published.

Identification guide

	Cap The cap of Parasola auricoma has a diameter of 1.5 to 2.2cm and is initially egg-shaped and almost smooth, later becoming convex, deeply ribbed and finally opening out to become almost flat. A distinctive tawny central 'eye', much the same colour as the very young fruitbody, now contrasts with the rest of the mature greyish cap. This species is distinguished from the typically somewhat smaller but otherwise very similar Parasola plicatilis by its darker (particularly when immature) cap colour and the presence of long, narrow hair-like setae (sometimes quite sparse) among the cap cells. These features can be seen with a x15 hand lens or under a low-powered microscope.
	Gills The white gills, adnexed or just free of but not remote from the stem, turn grey-bhrown and then black. Unlike most ink caps, this delicate little fungus has a cap that flattens and then shrivels rather than its gills deliquescing (turning to a black inky liquid). Stem 4 to 7.5cm long, but no more than 2 to 4mm in diameter and very fragile, the stems are silky or faintly fibrillose, white or dingy cream, and cylindrical, often with a slightly swollen base that is covered in fine white down.
	Spores Broadly ellipsoidal-ovoid in face view, 10-14 x 6-8μm. Spore print Black.
Odour/taste	Not distinctive.
Habitat	Saprobic on twigs and leaf litter in broadleaf woodland and, increasingly, on woodchip mulch in parks and gardens.
Season	May to November.
Occurrence	Uncommon (except in gardens on woodchip mulch) across Britain and Ireland, Parasola auricoma is also found throughout mainland Europe.
Similar species	Parasola kuehneri is more orange-brown but otherwise very similar in macroscopic appearance; it is found mainly on woodland edges. Parasola plicatilis is paler, somewhat smaller and does not have hairs in the centre of its cap; it is a grassland inkcap.

Reference Sources

Fascinated by Fungi, Pat O'Reilly 2011

Orton, P.D. & Watling, R. 1979. British Fungus Flora: Agarics and Boleti. Vol 2. Coprinaceae: Coprinus. Royal Botanic Garden: Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dictionary of the Fungi; Paul M. Kirk, Paul F. Cannon, David W. Minter and J. A. Stalpers; CABI, 2008

Taxonomic history and synonym information on these pages is drawn from many sources but in particular from the British Mycological Society's GB Checklist of Fungi and (for basidiomycetes) on Kew's Checklist of the British & Irish Basidiomycota.