Stinking Parachute

Micromphale perforans – Inedible

Coniferous and mixed forests. All year round.

Fruiting bodies tiny. Cap 0.5-1.5 cm across, flattened, wrinkled, depressed in the middle, the margin furrowed, tough, thin, reddish-brown, brownish. Gills narrow, distant, semi-decurrent or not even reaching the stem. Stem thread-like, up to 3 cm long, matt, rough, fibrous-granular, as if frosted, brownish-black, yellowish near the gills. Flesh membranous, thin, tough, with an unpleasant stinking smell, especially when rubbed between the fingers. Characteristic features: tiny, stinking fungi growing on fallen needles. Grows singly, but sometimes as if sown – close to one another, on spruce and pine needles, hundreds of fruiting bodies. Very common. A saprotroph of needles.