Coprinus comatus
Also called lawyer's wig, shaggy ink cap.
The shaggy mane is a tall white mushroom with a scaly, cylindrical cap that turns to black ink as it ages. It comes up on lawns, roadsides and disturbed ground in late summer and fall, often in rows or clusters, and lasts only a day or two.
The tell
Tall white cylindrical cap covered in shaggy scales, with gills that dissolve into black ink from the bottom edge up.
Field marks
Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.
Where and when
Lookalikes
Each card says how to tell the two apart.
Coprinopsis atramentaria
The common inkcap has a smooth, gray to gray-brown cap with fine lines and no shaggy scales, and it grows in tight clusters near buried wood. It contains coprine, which causes a reaction with alcohol.
Coprinellus micaceus
Mica caps are far smaller, with a honey-brown, bell-shaped cap dusted with glistening granules, and they grow in clusters on or near decaying wood.
Edibility
Field guides list the shaggy mane as edible when young, before the gills begin to darken. The cap digests itself within hours of being picked, so older specimens turn to black liquid. Unlike the common inkcap, it is not recorded as containing coprine, the compound that causes illness when inkcaps are combined with alcohol.
This page states what field guides record. It is not advice to eat, taste or handle anything, and a photo cannot settle edibility. If someone has eaten a wild mushroom that may be toxic, call poison control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) right away, before symptoms start: the deadliest species act hours later.
FAQ
Field guides list it as edible while the cap is still white and firm. Once the gills turn black and start to liquefy, it is past that stage. It breaks down within hours of picking.
The cap digests itself from the bottom edge upward, a process called deliquescence. The gills release their black spores as they dissolve, which turns the liquid black. The ink was once used for writing.
In lawns, along roadsides and trails, in parks and on disturbed or compacted ground. They often appear in lines or clusters after fall rains and come back in the same spots year after year.
Sources
MushroomExpert.com
Fungi Growing on Wood, Gary Emberger (MushroomExpert.com)
Missouri Department of Conservation
Index Fungorum
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