Angel's Bonnet

Mycena arcangeliana Bres.

1 Observations

1 year ago Last Observed

Angel's Bonnet (Mycena arcangeliana) is a small, pretty bonnet that often appears in late autumn and winter, when many other fungi have finished. Its bell-shaped cap is greyish-brown with a yellow or olive tint and is finely lined, and the stem is grey to dark grey with a white, fibrous base.

The best clue is the smell: a chemical, iodine-like odour, which becomes stronger if you keep a specimen in a closed container for a while. It grows on dead broadleaf wood, especially beech and ash, and sometimes on bracken stems. The Grooved Bonnet (Mycena polygramma) and Common Bonnet (Mycena galericulata) lack the iodine smell, and the Clustered Bonnet (Mycena inclinata) grows in tufts on stumps. It is too small to be worth eating.

Spore Print

Season

Native

unknown

Distribution

Widespread and common

Habitat

On dead wood of broadleaved trees, sometimes on bracken stems or in coniferous forests

Etymology

Mycena is from the Greek mykes, 'fungus'. arcangeliana is probably named after the Italian botanist Giovanni Arcangeli, though some link it to the archangel Michael.

Cap

The cap is 0.5-2.5 cm across, conical to bell-shaped, and smooth with fine radial grooves along the sulcate margin. It is yellow to greyish-brown, paler at the margin.

Colour
Shape	Conical, Campanulate
Surface	Smooth
Width	0.5 - 2.5 cm
Margin	Sulcate

Gills

The gills are adnexed and reach the stem, numbering 16-30. They are pale yellow to yellow with a pinkish-buff tinge, and the edges are finely toothed under a lens.

Colour
Attachment	Adnexed

Flesh

The flesh is thin and greyish-brown, with a farinose to bitter taste. The iodoform smell is strongest after keeping the fruiting bodies in a closed container.

Colour
Odour	Iodoform
Taste	Farinose to bitter

Stem

The stem is cylindrical and pruinose, 2.5-10 cm tall and 1-3 mm wide, in grey, bluish-grey and dark brown tones. The base has coarse white to yellowish fibrils that anchor it to the substrate.