Burgundydrop Bonnet - Mycena haematopus

There are several Mycena species with pinkish caps, but what makes this one rather special is the dark red droplets that exude from its cut flesh. Cap is 2 to 4cm across at maturity, initially conical, becoming bell shaped with a slight umbo; silky smooth; striate almost to centre when moist; usually pinkish-brown, sometimes reddish-brown, drying to pale greyish-pink.

A similar but much smaller and more slender species, Mycena sanguinolenta, the Bleeding Bonnet, grows on forest-floor litter mainly under conifers.

Your photos must show the dark red juice from cut or bruised stipe or gills.

Saprobic, on trunks and stumps and on fallen wood of deciduous broadleaf trees, particularly oaks, in well-shaded and damp locations; sometimes also on diseased parts of living trees, it grows in fused tufts. It is only very occasionally found on conifer stumps.

June to November.

This wood-rotting mushroom is fairly frequent in Britain.

Status in Leicestershire and Rutland not known.