I found an "inky cap" mushroom across from Kinkaid hall in my Natural History class. It has small white hairs on it. These mushrooms elongate over night to spread their spores.
For more information on the habitat, vegetation, and weather of Money Creek, the area in which this species was found, please see the journal entry for May 12, 2012 here on iNaturalist. This inky cap was found growing in a shady area under some western red cedars behind the decomposing log on which the oyster mushroom was found at Money Creek. It is a very common fungus here in North America and is one of the edible species, though it is poisonous when taken with alcohol. The mushrooms often grow in disturbed areas and appear in late spring to early summer. The cap will eventually flatten out and then melt.
Coprinopsis is a genus of mushrooms in the family Psathyrellaceae. Coprinopsis was split out of the genus Coprinus based on molecular data. The species Coprinopsis cinerea (=Coprinus cinereus) is a model organism for mushroom-forming basidiomycota, and its genome has been recently been sequenced completely.
