Garden Wildlife 5: Fungi ‘Coprinellus micaceus’

Almost overnight, these appeared around an old tree trunk in the garden.

It’s clearly a fungus, and some helpful souls at iSpot informed me it is a Coprinellus species. The exact species is apparently hard to pin down, but having looked at various images on the internet, I am reasonably confident it is Coprinellus micaceus.

Coprinellus is a genus of mushrooms in the Psathyrellaceae family. According to Wikipedia, Psathyrellaceae are agaric fungi, meaning the ‘mushroom’ or fruiting body has a cap which is clearly distinguishable from the stalk, and it has gills on the underside.

Wikipedia says of Coprinellus micaceus that the fruit bodies “grow in clusters on or near rotting tree stumps or underground tree roots” which is exactly where mine were found. It has the common names ‘mica cap’, ‘shiny cap’ and ‘glistening inky cap’.

You can read more about Coprinellus micaceus at Mushroom Expert, First-Nature and Wikipedia.