Fairies' Bonnets

Description

Fairies' bonnets is a tiny mushroom with a cap 1–1.5 cm across, bell-shaped or thimble-shaped, cream or light brown in young fruiting bodies, grey with age and finely striped. The stem is thread-thin, white, brittle and often curved. The gills are white at first, then greyish-violet, and almost black in old specimens.

It grows from May to November, in large numbers and in troops, forming dense carpets on rotting stumps and logs, including those partly buried in the ground, and sometimes at the base of living old trees. In Poland it is very common and appears several times in the same place during the season.

It is recognised by its mass, clustered growth on dead wood, its very small size, and the fact that, unlike most inkcaps, it does not dissolve into a black liquid. It is hard to tell apart with certainty from similar small mushrooms without a hand lens and a microscope.

Identification features

Cap

Diameter 1–1.5 cm. Young cap bell-shaped to thimble-shaped, cream, pale ochre, greyish-yellow, beige or ochre-yellowish; mature cap broadly bell-shaped, grey in various shades. Surface dry, matt, finely pleated radially; fine hairs visible under a hand lens in transmitted light. Unlike most inkcaps, it does not dissolve into a black liquid (does not undergo autolysis).

Hymenophore (underside of the cap)

Gills adnate to the stipe, widely spaced (some descriptions also say crowded). White at first, then greyish-violet or ochre, dark, almost black in old fruiting bodies.

Stem

Length 4–5 cm (up to about 4 cm in some descriptions), thickness about 1 mm. Whitish, cylindrical, often curved, slightly hygrophanous, very brittle.

Flesh

Whitish, very thin, with a mild taste and a slightly mushroomy smell. Do not taste the flesh.

Spore print and spores

Spore print black to blackish-brown. Spores ellipsoid, smooth, about 8–9 × 6–8 µm.

Habitat and distribution

Ecology. A saprotroph growing in dead wood of rotting stumps, including stumps partly buried in the soil. Fruiting bodies grow in troops, forming dense carpets; they sometimes appear in large numbers on living trunks of old trees, just above the ground or even a metre above it. The species has a very large number of mating types (about 143).

Distribution. Cosmopolitan: North, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, New Zealand, Hawaii. Very common in Poland. Not under species protection.

Fruiting. In Poland from May to November, usually several times per season at the same site. In North America: from May to November in the east, from October to March near the west coast.

What can it be confused with?

• Psathyrella pygmaea (Polish: kruchaweczka najmniejsza) — The cap has no fine hairs visible under a hand lens.
• Small species of the genus Tulosesus — Difficult to distinguish in the field, usually requiring microscopic examination.
• Other inkcaps (Coprinus, Coprinellus) — Most of them dissolve into a black liquid at maturity; C. disseminatus stays grey and does not undergo autolysis.

Never rely on a single feature. If you are not sure — do not pick it; show the mushroom to a qualified mushroom expert.

Interesting facts

• Unlike most inkcaps, it does not undergo autolysis, that is, it does not dissolve into a black liquid.
• The species has about 143 mating types (equivalents of sexes), an exceptionally large number.
• Originally described in 1774 by J.C. Schäffer as Agaricus pallescens; its current genus name was given by Lange in 1938.
• The English name “fairy inkcap” (also “fairies' bonnets”) refers to the tiny bell-shaped caps forming dense carpets.