October 14, 2007 - Inky Caps Welcome to the Nature Notebook. When it first comes up, it looks reminiscent of a British lawyer’s wig. The white bell-shaped cylindrical cap of this mushroom is covered with large, shaggy buff, tan or brown scales and is perched atop a tall, slender white stem. More popularly, this autumn mushroom is known as a shaggy mane. You can find shaggy mane mushrooms growing in wood chips, grass, or bare, hard-packed soil, sometimes numbering in the hundreds or thousands over the period of a few weeks each fall. Within twenty-four to forty-eight hours these stately mushrooms quickly disintegrate into a dripping, black goo. This happens when the cap releases self-digesting enzymes that help release its spores. During colonial times, this black substance was used to make ink. So, it’s not surprising that one of the names for this mushroom is inky cap. This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.