Shaggy Ink Caps outside Melbourne Museum.
Image: Ian Malcolm
Source: Museum Victoria
A spectacular mass of fungi has sprung up in the raised bed of hakeas in front of IMAX, at Melbourne Museum.
Shaggy Ink Cap (Coprinus comatus, also known as Lawyer’s Wig) feeds on dead woody debris in the soil, breaking down and recycling nutrients in the wood. It often grows in newly laid soil, and can grow in highly compacted earth, such as that found in the hakea bed.
Ink Caps have a very unusual method of dispersing spores. The fungus digests itself, secreting an enzyme that breaks down its own cells. This is called autodigestion (or deliquescence). Autodigestion proceeds upwards from the bottom edge of the cap. The cap and gills are slowly reduced to inky droplets, until finally all that is left is a little piece of cap on the top of the stem.
These inky droplets contain thousands and thousands of spores. The droplets fall to the ground, and the spores are then spread around by water currents, before germinating to start a new fungus individual.
Inky droplets from Ink Caps have been mixed with ink to print bank notes to prevent counterfeiting - spores in the ink can be seen through a microscope.
Shaggy Ink Cap is one of the target species of the Fungimap scheme, a project where the public can help scientists map the location of different species of fungi.
With thanks to Dr.Tom May, Senior Mycologist at the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, for identification and text.