Mycena acicula - Orange Bonnet

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

Despite the striking colour, these bonnet mushrooms are easy to overlook because they are so small. Rarely are the caps much more than 1cm across, and they tend to become obscured in the moss and leaf litter of the woodland floor.

Look out for these pretty little mushrooms in damp deciduous broadleaf woods, often in areas of deep shade, where they grow attached to small dead twigs buried beneath the top layer of leaf litter.

Most Mycena species have dull caps, and it may be that this and a few other small and brightly-coloured bonnet fungi are only distantly related to the other larger and duller bonnets currently classified in the same genus.

Identification Guide

Cap	0.5 to 1.8cm across; conical, becoming bell shaped; smooth with marginal striations; mid to dark orange, but often a lighter shade of orange or yellow towards the rim.
Gills	Adnexed to almost free; white or pale yellowish-orange with paler gill edges.
Stem	3 to 5cm long and 1 to 2mm in dia.; yellow; smooth or slightly powdery, particularly towards the apex; no ring.
Spore print	White.
Odour/taste	Not distinctive.
Habitat	Among mosses and leaf litter on deciduous woodland floors.
Season	July to November.
Occurrence	Fairly common .
Similar species	A similar species Mycena adonis, known as the Scarlet Bonnet, is also very small. An occasional find in both deciduous hardwood forests and in conifer plantations, the Scarlet Bonnet differs in having a reddish-orange or bright pink cap, and its stem is usually white. Both species tend to occur as singletons or in small scattered groups.