Common ink cap or Grey shag

The cap is at first egg-shaped or bell-shaped, 4-8 cm tall and 3-7 cm wide. It opens up with age. Color gray, gray-brown, sometimes with an olive tinge, darker in the center. The surface has distinctive radial ribs and grooves and small scales in the center. In old specimens it blackens and dissolves.

The cap of the grey shag is small — from 1 to 5 centimeters tall, at first egg-shaped-oval or bell-shaped; with age it opens out and dissolves into inky liquid at the margin. The surface is gray, ash-gray, often covered with small whitish scales or a mealy coating — remnants of the veil. When young the cap is paler; as it matures it grays and blackens from the edges. The whole cap is thin and pleated-striate.

Gilled hymenophore. Gills very crowded, thin, free. Color: young ones are white, then turning gray, pinkish, then black and autodigesting. Spore print black.

The hymenophore is gilled. The gills are free and very crowded, whitish at first, then quickly blacken and dissolve together with the cap margin into inky liquid (autolysis). The spore print is black. Rapid self-digestion of the gills into ink is a characteristic feature of all ink caps.

Stem 8-15 cm tall, 0.5-1.5 cm thick, cylindrical, white, smooth, hollow inside. There is no distinct ring — there may be a thin ring-like thickening near the base. Surface smooth or with barely noticeable down.

The stem is thin, hollow, white or whitish gray, up to 10 centimeters tall, smooth, often with a slightly thickened base. There is usually no ring, or only a trace of the veil remains. There is no volva. The stem is fragile and thin, typical of small ink caps.

The flesh in the cap is thin, white to grayish. In old specimens it quickly blackens and autodigests. When a young one is cut, the color barely changes.

The flesh is extremely thin, grayish or whitish, with no particular taste. Because of rapid autolysis it does not last long: within a few hours of maturity the fruiting body dissolves. That is why only very young, unopened specimens are fit to eat, and even those have almost no culinary value.

Faint, pleasant mushroomy smell. Mild taste with nothing special about it.

The smell is faint and nondescript, mushroomy or slightly musty. The scent is not a defining feature; the mushroom is recognized by its gray, pleated cap that dissolves into ink, its black gills and its growth on dung, compost and fertilized soil.