urbpan | 365 Urban Species. #326: Coprinellus disseminatus (Reply)

Photos by

cottonmanifesto. Location: base of a weeping willow tree, Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Urban species #236: ~~Coprinus~~ Coprinellus disseminatus (NEW EDIT 4/11/13)

The study and taxonomy of fungi is an active area of study, rather in flux these days. Field guides will have to be rewritten and republished to reflect new discoveries in molecular biology and evolutionary relationships. The clusters of small mushrooms, bursting from stumps and the bases of trees, produced by a fungus called Coprinus disseminatus will be probably renamed Psathyrella disseminata in the guides. [EDIT 4/11/13, as of now this species is called Coprinellus disseminatus.] The mushrooms have the tight conical shape and densely packed gills of the other mushrooms in the genus Coprinus, but lacks another important characteristic of the group. In others, the caps turn to liquid in order to release the spores, in disseminatus/disseminata they fall out into the air--like most species of umbrella-shaped mushrooms--leaving the caps intact. Coprinellus dissseminatus, ~~for lack of a better name for now,~~ feeds on wet tree roots and stumps of many different species. The mushrooms emerge from the bark of the tree, as well as the earth and grass near the tree.