Happy #FungusFriday, today we let our troubles melt away, just like the cap of this #ShaggyInkCap #Coprinuscomatus. This is a common composter saprotroph that is often seen along roadsides, in gravel, or coming out of lawns. It’s starts out as a white egg shaped oval arising from the ground the quickly elongating over the course of 24 hours. Within a day of emerging, the edge of the white cap starts to turn pink, then black, and quickly melts into a black sloppy mess of spores that drip onto the surrounding ground. The whole process is called deliquescence, an auto-digestion of the mushroom tissue as a mechanism to disperse its spores. The black ink can be mixed with alcohol and used as ink for writing, or the black goo makes a great vegan substitute for squid ink in pastas. . Coprinus comatus is an excellent edible mushroom when it’s still white and fresh (before it’s starts melting). It is excellent in a simple sauté or in soups, with a delicate flavor and texture. This mushroom is cultivated in China. I’ve been wanting to get a latch of them established in my own yard. . Dissolve by absofacto was the best possible pairing I could think of for this video. The time lapse was filmed in my Mella mushroom chamber over ~16 hours. . . #shaggymane #shaggymanemushroom #shaggymanes #deliquescence #melting #inkcap #inkycapmushroom #mycology #timelapse #timelapsevideo #fascinatedbyfungi #dissolve