A shaggy ink cap that gave up on damp: it stands dry and woody in deserts on every inhabited continent, sometimes for months. Aboriginal Australians used the black spore powder as a dye.
Must be eaten young and white — within hours it dissolves itself into black ink.
Side by side
Podaxis pistillaris
Coprinus comatus
In this game
Inedible / unclear
Edible
Habitat
Not recorded yet
Verges, lawns, playing fields and disturbed ground.
Season
Not recorded yet
Summer to late autumn.
Spore print
Not recorded yet
Black.
This comparison cannot make a mushroom safe to eat. It sets out the few characteristics this game records, in general terms, for two species that vary by region, age and growing conditions. Real specimens overlap in ways no table and no photograph can separate, and the deadly one here is deadly in a single meal. Ask a qualified local expert, every time.