A mushroom to crow about

Fingle Bridge is a 17th Century stone arch packhorse bridge over the River Teign in Devon.

Fingle Bridge - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Walking along the River there I spot an interesting mushroom. It’s a Magpie Ink Cap, Coprinopsis picacea:

Coprinopsis picacea - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Here it is in James Sowerby’s Coloured Figures of English Mushrooms or Fungi from 1797:

Coprinopsis picacea - The Hall of Einar

It’s a mushroom which grows and turns to liquid in barely a day. I suspect that it’s a little more common than people think just because it’s difficult to be in the right place at the right time to see it. It’s a handsome mushroom.

Coprinopsis picacea - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

If I’d gone back later in the day it would have opened out considerably.

The first scientific description of it was in 1785 by Jean Baptiste Francois Pierre Bulliard. Its name picaceus is from Pica pica, the scientific name for the Magpie:

Coprinopsis picacea - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Then there’s time to climb up the Hunters’ Path to see the views across the Teign gorge:

Fingle Bridge - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

Before gorging myself in the Fingle Bridge Inn.

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