While looking for snakes in southern Illinois, I noticed a large number of tiny mushrooms at the base of a tree. This species derives its nutrients from decaying wood and is usually found on or near dead tree stumps or decaying logs.

These gregarious little fungi occur from early spring until the onset of winter, and they are at their most spectacular when the caps are young and pale – sometimes nearly pure white.

Common in Britain and Ireland and throughout Europe and North America, the Fairy Inkcap is truly a cosmopolitan mushroom, being found also in most parts of Asia and in South America and Australia.

For most types of inkcap mushroom, the gills and caps melt into an inky black ooze – which is what gives the inkcaps their common name. Though this is not a feature of the Fairy Inkcap.

Rather than melt into mush, the caps of the Fairy Inkcap remain brittle, and easily teared, hence their alternate common name of Trooping Crumble Cap.

Third Eye Herp
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