Coprinus comatus, commonly known as the shaggy mane mushroom, shaggy ink cap, or the lawyer's wig, is generally considered to be a very easy mushroom to identify, but care must still be taken when identifying it.
In fact, it's generally considered to be one of the "foolproof five" which includes chicken mushrooms, black trumpets, morels, and giant puffballs.
I personally cannot emphasize enough, the "foolproof five" is a myth!
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| Shaggy mane starting to deliquesce, at this stage easy to ID, but less desirable as food |
Shaggy mane mushrooms can be, and frequently are mistaken for: Coprinopsis atramentaria (potentially poisonous), Chlorophyllum molybdites (very poisonous--but not deadly), and Amanita thiersii (possibly poisonous).
If you aren't trying to eat shaggy manes and can afford to wait thier whole life cycle, they are really easy to identify. The problem is, by the stage of thier life when they become easy to identify, they are no longer suitable to eat, because of deliquescence. As the mushroom ages, it deliquesces, eventually turning into a black goo.
The black goo is easy to identify, but not something you would want to eat.
As a forager, the trick is to find and identify the mushrooms before they start to deliquesce, and at that stage its possible to confuse the mushroom with a couple of others.
Where to find shaggy mane mushrooms
Shaggy manes are commonly referred to as a field (or yard mushroom) but really they are saprobes (decomposers) and they can grow anywhere there is a food source. This can include wood chips, forest edges, lawns/fields, gardens, orchards, or really anywhere there is decaying plant matter under the soil.
They seem to be late-stage decomposers. Our home had a front-yard tree, some 8 years before we bought it. The stump had been only lightly covered with soil. For years the stump and surrounding area grew Ganoderma polypores and other various other inky caps, but it wasn't until we had the stump professionally ground up and really filled in with soil that we started getting shaggy manes.
Though this is anecdotal evidence, it holds true with what else I've seen: shaggy manes in old wood chips, never young ones (unless there's a layer of old chips underneath) or shaggy manes springing up from years of dead leaf accumulation in areas where leaves aren't blown or raked away.
Shaggy manes dislike competing for real estate, so they are often found in disturbed or barren ground. Super packed soil where nothing else is growing is a good place to find them, as are the edges of trails and pathways, garden borders, where you have pulled out competing plants and laid down dense fertilizer food, abandoned compost mounds, and areas prone to flood wash and run-off that disrupts plant growth, this can include gullies, gulches and rocky hillsides.
Shaggy manes rarely fruit alone. They often cluster into 2s, 3s, and 4s, and when you find one cluster, you will often find more nearby.
When to find shaggy mane mushrooms
When it's warm but not hot. These mushrooms are most often a late summer and fall mushroom. In the north, I most often encounter them in August and September, but occasionally July and October. When you find them in mid-summer, it's most often during a cool spell. In the South I've found them from September through warm Decembers, and even in January thaws.
Shaggy mane mushrooms don't like it too wet. They can fruit from just morning precipitation (dew), and generally don't fruit after heavy rain. They definitely won't fruit in standing water, but they do like to fruit at the edges of gulches and gullies that are made by run-off.
How to identify shaggy mane mushrooms
Cap
The mushroom cap starts out as an elongated oval or egg shape. Honestly, when young it looks rather like an oversized cotton swab (commonly known as a q-tip) sticking out of the ground. As the mushroom matures, it will break away from the stem and open up into a bell-shape.
As the bell shape forms and expands, the mushroom will turn dark and liquidy at the bottom edge, like thick ink or goo. This is called deliquescence.
Shaggy mane caps can range in size from about 2 inches to 6 inches in height, plus the stem.
Scales
The cap of a shaggy mane is white, cottony in texture, and has white, cream or tan feathery scales. Sometimes these scales cover the whole mushroom, and sometimes they are concentrated at the top.
Similar (poisonous) mushrooms may scales. The shaggy made scales will always be thin and feathery, and will curl upwards at the edges. The can be peeled away, or partially peeled away without damaging the mushroom cap.
Stem
Shaggy mane stems are white, somewhat fibrous (but soft fibers), and fragile. They will be hollow or nearly so. If they have anything inside, it will appear like cottony filaments.
The stem generally extends another 1-3 inches below the bottom edge of the cap, and it is slender compared to the cap thickness.
The stem does NOT have a ring/skirt around it, nor does it have a bulb at the base or underground.
Underground
Dig around a bit at the base of the mushroom. There should NOT be a bulb or widening of the stem into a round shape underground.
Deliquescence of the gills
Shaggy mane mushrooms deliquesce to ink very quickly. Deliquescence is the process of absorbing extra moisture to basically dissolve the mushrooms own cells.
These mushrooms can go from tightly-formed ovals to a mostly-inky mess over the course of a few hours; once picked, the process is even faster.
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| Still edible at this stage, many people (including myself) think that the start of deliquescence actually improves the mushroom's flavor. |
The mushroom is still edible as it changes color, and many people (myself included), find the flavor to actually improve at this stage. Technically, you can even eat the mushroom after it turns completely into ink--as you can cook the ink into a sauce or a gravy. However, it's messy to work with and complicated to transport.
If you are unsure if a mushroom is a shaggy mane, pick it and wait and hour or so. The edge of the cap should start to deliquesce.
If you are new to these mushrooms, you must pick your potential shaggy mane, and wait an hour or two to see if the edges start to deliquesce. If they do not, throw the mushroom out as you do NOT have a shaggy mane, and may have a potentially deadly species.
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| After about 40 - 60 minutes, even this very fresh shaggy mane on the left starts to show dark spores and crack, as on the right. |
How to harvest and use shaggy mane mushrooms
The entire above-ground portion of the shaggy mane can be eaten; the caps are the best part, but the stems aren't woody -- just slightly less flavorful. The base of the stem should be trimmed for dirt.
When picking shaggy manes, it's best to use a wide, shallow basket. They bruise easily when crowded together or bumped by other items in your bag or basket. Being packed in tightly will also speed up the deliquescence.
When you get the mushrooms home, you can trim off any inky edges if you find them unappetizing, but know that the ink is perfectly edible if you like.
Once picked, shaggy manes should be cooked or frozen within an hour, if you don't want to eat the ink. They will continue to deliquesce if stored in the refrigerator, though it will slow the process somewhat.
Shaggy manes can be sautéed with butter or roasted in the oven, they also take very well to steaming or breading and frying. Tempura-style shaggy mane is fantastic. They don't hold up well on the grill. Cooking the mushrooms will stop the deliquescence, and you can store the left-overs in the refrigerator or freeze them.
When cooked, shaggy manes have a mild, creamy flavor that's easily overpowered. To make them shine, partner them with mild cheeses, eggs, small amounts of fresh herbs, and nuts. They also absorb fats easily, so if you sauté consider starting in water or broth before you add butter or oil, to prevent them becoming saturated. You may wish to remove the stems and cook them separately first, as they can take a little longer to cook.
Some people dehydrate shaggy manes; I personally do not. If you wish to try this, you will need a proper dehydrator, don't attempt this with the old "oven-on-the-lowest-setting-with-the-door-open-trick".
Only select the youngest, most tightly-closed caps for dehydration. Generally mushrooms are dehydrated on the lowest setting (90-95 degrees Fahrenheit), but with shaggy manes you are in a race against time. You will want to use a higher setting, somewhere around 135. To ensure even dehydration, you should split the mushrooms in half first.
Potential look-a-like species
Chlorophyllum molybdites (poisonous)
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| Cholophyllum molybdites - poisonous |
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| Shaggy mane (Coprinus comatus) - edible |
Many articles about shaggy manes only list other inky caps as potential look-a-like species. But for the firm little buttons, in my opinion, Cholophyllum molybdites, a poisonous, sickening mushroom, is a match at first glance.
Upon closer inspection, the differences are very apparent. C. molybdites has thick patches or warts on the cap surface, and shaggy manes have soft, feathery scales or flaps. Despite what you might read, you can't tell them apart by which type of scales/patches can be rubbed away: they both can, though it is much more difficult with the scales on C. molybdites.
The best way is just to look at them closely. The patches on C. molybdites will occasionally peel up, but they are never feathery or light, they never seem to float away from the mushroom.
If you are very concerned or very new to mushroom foraging, pick your shaggy mane, then leave it out on the counter or table in a room-temp environment for 40 minutes or so. The edges of the gills will darken as the inside darkens. C. molybdites will never exhibit this behavior.
C. molybdites is a TERRIBLE sickener, presenting severe vomiting and diarrhea, both frequently bloody, intense cramping, and profuse sweating, all of which can last for 24 hours. It is generally not considered a deadly mushroom, but the symptoms can require hospitalization and intravenous fluids, especially in the very young, the very old, or the infirm. This mushroom actually causes the majority of mushroom poisonings in the United States. It's very common and looks (and apparently tastes) quite good.
I have a post on Chlorophyllum molybdites, if you are interested.
Common inky cap (generally poisonous)
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| Image courtesy of Micheal Palmer (photorasa.com) via Wikipedia Commons |
Toxicity:
Some people eat this mushroom, but it should be avoided by men looking to have children and anyone who drinks alcohol.This mushroom inhibits your body's ability to cleanse itself from alcohol toxins, basically meaning that any alcohol in your system immediately results in drunkenness, an instant hangover, and/or alcohol poisoning, depending on how much alcohol is in your system. Symptoms include disorientation, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea.
The effects of the mushroom can last 3-5 days in either direction. Meaning if you had a glass of wine 3 days ago, then eat this mushroom, you might still get sick. If you eat this mushroom and have a glass of whiskey 3 days after you could again get sick.
Historically, this mushroom was used by wise women/witches to give to wives to try and cure husbands of their drunkenness, but in general they caught on pretty quickly. Given the ephemeral nature of the inky caps, it couldn't be dried and needed to be ingested fresh. More recently these mushrooms were tested in Sweden as a natural alternative to Disulfiram, a medicine for discouraging alcohol consumption. However, the active ingredient in ink cap mushrooms is corprine, which has been shown in laboratory studies to lower sperm count in rodents. Despite the enormous amounts needed to affect a human, the use of this mushroom was dropped.
Scaly inky cap / Feltscale ink cap mushrooms (poisonous)
The easiest way to tell C. variegata from Coprinus comatus is to look for the scales. C. variegata lack the feathery scales that are a part of the cap, as they are for the shaggy mane, instead having patches that rub away easily. Once you rub away the scale, the surface of a scaly inky cap has a faint metalic shimmer, like pewter. Check out this video I posted on Instagram to see what I mean:
Toxicity:
This mushroom most likely has the same toxicity as the common inky cap, but with fewer examples of having been consumed. For that reason, I would avoid consumption of this mushroom till we know more about it.
Amanita thiersii (potentially poisonous) and Amanita abrupta (deadly poisonous)
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| Amanita thiersii, courtesy of Brian Adamo (Adamo588), via Wikimedia Commons. |
When these Amanita are young, they could potentially be confused with shaggy manes (Coprinus comatus). Both have white scale-like growths on the cap. For A. theirsii, these scales are actually soft and very much like shaggy manes, and for A. abrupta they are more firm-and poke out like pyramids or spikes.
A. abrupta is deadly poisonous, but I don't think there is serious risk of confusion. A. abrupta has an "abrupt" bulb at the base -- which may be slightly underground. In the Americas, Amanita abrupta ranges from Southern Canada through the Southern United States, however it's range expands every year.
It is unknown if A. theirsii is poisonous or not. There are reports of eating it in Mexico, yet I cannot advise it for the table, as the reports are unconfirmed. Also, this mushroom could be mistaken for the deadly A. abrupta.
Amanita theirsii is generally only found in the Central America, Northern South America, and the Southern, Southwest, Southeast, and Mid-west states of the USA, but with climate change this mushroom pushes northward every year.
Once again, there is an EASY way to rule out both these mushrooms: pick your potential shaggy mane, and wait an hour or two to see if the edges start to deliquesce. If they do not, throw the mushroom out as you do NOT have a shaggy mane, and may have a potentially deadly species.
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