Coprinellus angulatus
Taxon 50(1): 232. 2001.
Common Name: none
Synonym: Coprinus angulatus Peck
Cap 1.5-3.0 cm broad, broadly parabolic to obtuse-conic, becoming campanulate to plano-convex, in age, margin upturned, torn, and deliquescent; surface glabrous to the unaided eye, minutely hairy viewed with a hand lens, striate-plicate at the margin, striations extending to near the disc, the latter buff-brown to dingy tawny-brown, shading to greyish-buff towards the margin; context thin, membranous; odor and taste not distinctive.
Gills crowded, narrowly adnexed, seceding, appearing free in age, less than 2 mm in width, pale-gray with blackish edges in youth, deliquescing, entirely black at maturity; lamellulae in up to three series.
Stipe 2-5 cm long, 1.5-3.0 mm in width, round, hollow, fragile, equal to slightly enlarged at the base; surface when young faintly pruinose to striate, translucent-grey; cottony fibrils at the base; partial veil absent.
Spores 9.0-11.5 x 7.0-7.5 µm, smooth, mitriform to heart-shaped in face-view, elliptical in profile, with a broad, truncate, central germ pore; spores blackish in deposit.
In small groups or clusters on burnt ground; fruiting in the spring in montane regions; occasional.
Edibility unknown; inconsequential.
Unusual for an inky cap, Coprinellus angulatus fruits in the charcoal debris left by forest fires, a habitat it shares with a number of burn-adapted species such as morels (Morchella spp), Pholiota highlandensis, Pachylepyrium carbonicola, Geopyxis carbonaria, Peziza violacea, etc. A helpful, though not definitive field character, is the lack of universal veil cap fragments, which differentiates it from species like Coprinopsis lagopus, Coprinellus flocculosus, and Coprinellus micaceus. Microscopically the presence of pileocystidia, also known as setules, and mitriform spores (shaped like a Bishop's cap) are additional identifying features. Coprinellus angulatus should be compared with Coprinellus disseminatus, a similar but smaller species which fruits in large troops, usually near decaying wood.
Breitenbach, J. & Kränzlin, F. (1995). Fungi of Switzerland. Volume 4: Agarics (2nd Part). Entolomataceae, Pluteaceae, Amanitaceae, Agaricaceae, Coprinaceae, Strophariaceae. Verlag Mykologia: Luzern, Switzerland. 368 p.
Noordeloos, M.E., Kuyper, T.W. & Vellinga, E.C. (2005). Flora Agaricina Neerlandica—Critical monographs on the families of agarics and boleti occurring in the Netherlands. Volume 6. Coprinaceae & Bolbitiaceae. Taylor & Francis: Boca Raton, FL. 227 p.
Orton, P.D. & Watling, R. (1979). British Fungus Flora: Agarics and Boleti. Vol 2. Coprinaceae: Coprinus. Royal Botanic Garden: Edinburgh, Scotland. 149 p.
Peck, C.H. (1873). Descriptions of new species of fungi. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 1: 41-72. (Protologue)
Redhead, S.A., Vilgalys, R., Moncalvo, J.-M. , Johnson, J. & Hopple Jr., J.S. (2001). Coprinus Pers. and the disposition of Coprinus species sensu lato. Taxon 50: 203-241.
