Fetid Parachute

Micromphale foetidum

On fallen, rotten branches of hazel, oak and other deciduous trees. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies small. Cap 1-3 (4) cm across, convex, later flattened, depressed in the middle, irregularly pleated-wavy, wrinkled, furrowed, slimy, reddish-brown, brown, yellowish-brown. Gills distant, narrow, with anastomoses at the base, semi-decurrent. Stem 1-3 (5)x0.2-0.5 cm, very tough, velvety, blackish-brown, firmly attached to the substrate. Flesh thin, membranous, with a pungent smell of garlic and rotten fish, not bitter. Characteristic features: cap reddish-brown, stem blackish-brown, velvety. Grows mostly in groups, sometimes singly, close to one another, on fallen branches of deciduous trees. Not rare; in some oak woods very widespread.