Tag Archives: Bonnet fungi

311/366 The bonnets are back

06 Friday Nov 2020

Posted by in autumn, fungi

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It’s almost a year since I published the post Groovy bonnets (on 27 November 2019), about a troop of Grooved bonnet fungi (Mycena polygramma) that was growing on a tree in the green space around a local church.

201106 grooved bonnets (1)

Since then, sadly, the tree they were growing on has mostly gone, blown down in one of our winter storms early this year – now, only the stump remains.

201106 grooved bonnets (2)

But the fungi were still there, living silently unseen beneath the surface, until now, when they are fruiting again.

201106 grooved bonnets (3)

And these gorgeous fungi are supporting other life – spot the millipede amongst the gills in my second photo.

201106 grooved bonnets (4)

331/365 Groovy bonnets

27 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by in autumn, fungi, nature

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Finally some fungi I can identify with confidence because, as Pat O’Reilly explains on the First Nature website,

Cap colour is rarely of much help when you are struggling to identify a Mycena, as they vary so much with age, location, humidity and growing substrate. If you look closely at the stem of a Grooved Bonnet you will see that it has longitudinal striations, whereas other common bonnet mushrooms have smooth stems.

So, the striated stems you can, hopefully, see in my second photo below prove that these lovely little bonnets I found growing in a tree in the grounds of a local church are … taaa daaa! … Grooved bonnets (Mycena polygramma).

No bees in these bonnets

29 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by in fungi, nature

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As mushroom expert Michael Kuo writes, Mycena fungi are ‘some of the most beautiful and elegant mushrooms on earth’ but, due to their often tiny size, they’re frequently overlooked. His advice is that we should all slow down and take the time to appreciate the beauty of small things. And I couldn’t agree more!

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I think you can easily see why the Mycenoid fungi usually have a common name that includes the word bonnet: that cap shape is a dead giveaway. And their common names are often delightful, sometimes intriguing: Pinkedge bonnet, Frosty bonnet, Snapping bonnet, Pelargonium bonnet, Bleeding bonnet, Ferny bonnet, Nitrous bonnet, Vulgar bonnet and Cryptic bonnet, to name just a few. Like nearly all fungi, the Mycenoids can be difficult to identify and I don’t know the names of all of those in my photographs but I do think they’re all rather lovely.