Day 98: My good friend and mentor Arnie Peterson presented me with the challenge of finding a new species of Coprinus, and although I wasn't quite certain how to go about doing so, fortune favoured me with one in my own back yard. It is customary that when someone discovers a new species and describes it scientifically, they have the privilege of naming it once it has been assigned to the proper genus. I have chosen to honour Arnie by calling this unique fungus Coprinus petersonii, or Peterson's Inky-cap. The scientific description is as follows:
Cap: 2.–2.5 cm in diameter, 4.5–6 cm tall; cylindrical with a rounded top when young, becoming scaly in age. Cap white, flecked with light brown, darker brown at the apex, deteriorating into fine grey-black strands at maturity. Surface tomentose.
Gills: Undistinguished, creamy white.
Odour: Reminiscent of damp wool.
Stipe: 1–1.5 cm wide, cylindrical and tapering only where it attaches to the cap. Surface tomentose. The stipe is solid and compact. An annulus may be present.
Spores: Scaly, 2.5–5 µm, black with an apical pore.
Geographical distribution: Known only from one location in western Washington.
Here, a bit of apology is in order to the several people who swallowed (hook, line, sinker and copy of "Angling Times") my post regarding Cantharellus lanafiltris a few days ago. I have been known to pull legs on occasion with bogus birds, fake frogs and counterfeit caterpillars, but never before without revealing in the last few sentences the deception. I neglected to do so with the Woolly Chanterelle. Those paired fungal specimens were, of course, needle-felted...as is this Coprinus which, I believe, fulfills Arnie's true challenge: to create an Inky-cap with wool.
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