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  • Writer's pictureTom Holley

25 | Photographing Mushrooms: 14 - Mycena sanguinolenta // Bleeding Bonnet

Updated: Aug 22, 2022

Mushrooms Marcos number 14 - Commonly known as the Bleeding bonnet or by it's Binomial name Mycena sanguinolenta is a very widely distributed mushroom in the northern hemisphere. Here in the UK, this species can be found on humus and vegetable debris among grass and moss, on fallen twigs and moss-covered trunks of both deciduous trees and coniferous trees, and among fallen needles of coniferous trees; therefore, the most common habitat would be forests or woodlands. With this is mind, & more importantly because it belongs to the family Mycenaceae, the sanguinolenta is a saprotrophic, so therefore usually found in summer to Autumn however throughout the year. With it's shaped hemispherical, pointed, sulcate, and umbrella-like cap, this is a very distinctive feature when I look out for this mushroom.


Phylum: Basidiomycota Family: Mycenaceae


Cap: The cap is convex or conic during immaturity with margin pressed against stem. In maturity, cap becomes convex or bell shaped. Surface: Moist. Opaque margin which soon furrows / Cap colour: Variable but reddish to grayish-brown, with red-brown margin.

Gills: Are adnate/slightly toothed. Narrowly attached to the stem; close or nearly distant; whitish, becoming grayish to purplish; often stained reddish brown; edges colored like the faces.


Spore/Print: Spores 8-11 x 5-7 µ; broadly elliptical; smooth; weakly to moderately amyloid. Print: White.


Flesh: Pallid, insubstantial or coloured like the cap. Exudes reddish/purplish latex if split


Stipe: Fibrous. Rooted stem, stem also exudes a milky latex when broken (see flesh)


Skirt: N/A


Size/Height: 4-8 cm height (stipe) / 1-2mm thick (stipe) / 1-4cm diameter (cap)


Season: June - November

Habitat: Forest soils/woodlands. More closely speaking amongst moss beds, decomposing leaves, needles (coniferous habitats)


Distribution: Small groups. This example: 2


Edible: Tough & inedible


Odour/Taste: Non-distinct / Mild or bitter


Medicinal:


Confusion Species:


Etymology: The bonnet mushrooms, Mycenaceae, were in the past included in the huge family Tricholomataceae.


Microscopy: Spores 8-11 x 5-7 µ


Ecological Role: The sanguinolenta is parasitized by the Spinellus fusiger, the most common of fungi parasites on bonnets in the UK & Ireland.


Pictures Taken: 12th of August 2022


Reference List:

Mushrooms (Roger Philips)

Collins mushroom pocket guide

https://species.nbnatlas.org/species/NHMSYS0001490255


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