Grassy very wet area in the shade
Beside a decaying cedar log these little inky caps were emerging out of the spongey ground of leaves and bark. Beneath the cap was black, hence the name "inky cap." Just uncovering the tiniest bit of earth here revealed a huge network of hyphae.
This fungus was almost not discovered under a small log at UBNA. Unfortunately in the process trying to find it, we plucked it and ripped the cap slightly. This fungus, like many, loves woody materials. It's characterized by the line across the cap.
The Psathyrellaceae is a family of dark-spored agarics that generally have rather soft, fragile fruiting bodies, and are characterized by black or dark brown, rarely reddish, or even pastel colored spore prints. About 50% of the species produce fruiting bodies that dissolve into ink-like ooze when the spores are mature via self digestion (autodigestion). Prior to phylogenetic research based upon DNA comparisons, most of the species that autodigested were previously classified in another family called the...
