ID - small white cap fungi with orange tip

Bruce Williams · #1 (**permalink**) 20-10-2007, 09:56 PM

Help with identification much appreciated.

Bruce

Fungus Ken · #2 (**permalink**) 20-10-2007, 10:44 PM

I think this is Mycena crocata, Saffrondrop Bonnet. You can see the distinctive orange staining on the cap and if you broke the stem it would exude an orange latex.

I'm jealous. I've never found this myself.

It seems to be a southern species.

Ken

Leif · #3 (**permalink**) 20-10-2007, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fungus Ken

I think this is Mycena crocata, Saffrondrop Bonnet. You can see the distinctive orange staining on the cap and if you broke the stem it would exude an orange latex.

I'm jealous. I've never found this myself.

It seems to be a southern species.

Ken

I think you are right, though the caps are unusually white. Mycena crocata caps usually start out dark, and then become white with orange stains as they age. It is quite common in Beech woods in Berkshire, and Buckinghamshire in places such as Burnham Beeches and Ashridge Forest. Beech does tend to be a southern species.

Bruce Williams · #4 (**permalink**) 20-10-2007, 11:56 PM

Thanks Ken and Leif.

This group was the only one I saw like this (I spotted them because they were so white). Interestingly, in the same general area (dark, damp, broadleaf wood) there were a lot of very similar looking fungi (size, stem and cap shape) that were a great deal darker.

However the group in the posted pic also included a couple of very "young" examples of this white type that I also photographed - as well as the underside of one that had been uprooted (the stem had gone orange). I'll post the pics tomorrow showing them.

Bruce