Burgundydrop Bonnet

Mycena haematopus

Rotten deciduous wood, most often of black or grey alder. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies small. Cap 1–3 cm across, bell-shaped, when old flattened-convex, with an umbo, conical, the margin furrowed, fringed, purplish-brown, rusty-brown. Gills distant, white, adnate; when broken, droplets of reddish-brown liquid ooze out, leaving a brown band when they dry. Stem 3–8x0.2–0.4 cm, the colour of the cap, whitish-frosted near the gills, the base conspicuously hairy, bristly; when broken a reddish-brown liquid is released. Flesh thin, brownish, smelling of mould, rather sharp-tasting. Characteristic features: when the cap or stem is broken, droplets of reddish-brown liquid ooze out. Grows in tufts and groups on fallen alders, rarely on branches and snags of other deciduous trees. Common. Wood saprotroph. Inedible.