I’m so pleased that the season for fungi is here. I’ve seen two clusters of toadstools in the watermeadow but have yet to identify the other.
Also known as a mica cap because of the dusting of a mica-like substance that looks like salt crystals, the glistening inkcap is one of the easier-to-identify toadstools. The salty dusting and the tawny caps are very distinctive, as is the corrugated surface of the caps. The caps become dark grey towards the edges.
They grow in groups on decomposing wood – stumps, buried wood and logs. These were growing adjacent to a stump that we had been using as a step. These toadstools can, in fact, appear all year round.
They start off almost egg-shaped, opening out more and then the gills deliquesce, or liquify to black ink, hence the name. Glistening inkcaps are edible before deliquescence and must be cooked and eaten immediately or they will begin to liquify. I am happy to leave it to the experts.
UPDATE – I waited for the Ground Ivy to flower – but it didn’t. So, I posted the Ground Ivy anyway because the leaves, reminiscent of water lilies, were so pretty. But today I noticed that the Ground Ivy is blooming. The flowers, see below, are tiny lilac cones.
