Mushroom Mumblings ft. Coprinopsis Atramentaria

Credit: Wikimedia

For my auspicious return, I will be writing a much shorter article than usual so that my weak eyes will not be spending hours looking at a page-long block of text. Well, that’s the hope. Onwards, my readers, you will survive this mushroom diatribe. Probably. Hopefully.

So the Coprinopsis atramentaria has multiple common names, such as the common ink cap, the inky cap, tippler’s bane, or the alcohol inky cap. There are also other varieties of ink caps (the shaggy mane, the mica cap, etc, etc.), but one thing that they all have in common is that their gills turn black and liquefy as the mushrooms mature; people used to use that liquid substance as writing ink, which is where the ‘inky’ part of their name comes from. One small problem was that the ink would eventually smell like rotten fish. So if you would like to write with an inky cap’s ink, well, go for it.

As for the edibility of this specific inky cap (the common ink cap, come on, it was just a paragraph away, don’t forget it already), it’s edible! I know, I know, it’s a surprise. Usually, I prefer to write about deadly mushrooms. So put your applause here, please.

Well, now put your hands away. I lied, kinda. Put your boos here. 

So, when eating, you’ll notice that the common ink cap has a mild to bitter taste (according to blogs online). You would also want to eat the common ink cap when it’s young and fresh, before the mushroom has the time to liquify parts of itself. Additionally, when I say fresh, I mean that if you store it for more than a day, it will have already begun the process of liquefaction. 

Now, for times that you do not want to eat this mushroom! Remember how I wrote (just three paragraphs ago) that one of its common names is the tippler’s bane? Well, a tippler is someone who is a “habitual drinker of alcohol.” The common ink cap is a tippler’s bane because, when alcohol is consumed within three days of eating this mushroom, it can block one’s ability to metabolize alcohol (blame the compound coprine). This will result in disulfiram-like symptoms, which consist of nausea, vomiting, agitation, and more. The severity of one’s symptoms is proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed and the time since eating the mushroom. In more serious and rare cases, this can cause a heart attack. 

Luckily, for anyone who does make the mistake of consuming this mushroom and then alcohol, there aren’t any confirmed deaths! The reaction (blame corpine again) is almost never fatal, but it’s also not recommended to pursue.

Also, the small fact that I didn’t find a place to fit into the other block of text above, the liquefaction of the mushroom is because the mushroom is basically digesting itself. The purpose of that is to spread its spores more easily. Now, beyond the realm of mushroom facts and into the realm of personal interest, I find this mushroom, along with other inky caps, really pretty, especially when they reach the inky stage.