Photo by Steve Greaves (lovely name, no?)

As the cap matures it deliquesces into an inky black fluid. This specimen was found by the side of a path in deciduous woodland.

It deliquesces!

1. to become liquid by absorbing moisture from the air, as certain salts.
2. to melt away.
3. Botany. to form many small divisions or branches.

There is a collection of similarly unique mushrooms (such as the “scarlet waxy cap” — poetry! — and the aptly named “turkey tail mushroom”) at Matador.