Bleeding Bonnet

Mycena sanguinolenta

Coniferous, more rarely deciduous forests, on needles and twigs. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies tiny. Cap 0.5-1.5 cm across, bell-shaped, later flattened, with an umbo, translucent, reddish-brown, brown, with a skin-coloured tinge, fading to cream, the margin furrowed. Gills narrow, distant, greyish, adnate, edges reddish-brown. Stem 3-7 (10) cm long and 0.5-1 cm thick, grey near the gills, ochre-pink below, the colour of the cap; when broken a purple liquid flows out. Flesh thin, tough, greyish-pink, with an unpleasant smell and taste. Characteristic features: fruiting bodies ochre-pink, tiny, a purple liquid flows out when the stem is broken. Grows in small groups. Inedible. In the photo – a bleeding bonnet ravaged by the mould Rizopus nigricans Ehrenb.