Bleeding Fairy Helmet

Order: Agaricales

Family: Mycenaceae

Genus: Myena

Species: M. haematopus

Identifying Characteristics:

- Cap: Dry; reddish-brown at center to reddish-gray near margin. The shape of the cap of the fruit body will vary depending on its maturity. Young caps, or "buttons", are ovoid (egg-shaped) to conical; later they are campanulate (bell-shaped), and as the fruit body matures, the margins (cap edge) lift upward so that the cap becomes somewhat flat with an umbo(a central nipple-shaped bump)

- Gills: Attached; whitish, staining reddish-brown; edges minutely cottony-white.

- Spore print: White.

- Stipe: Brownish to reddish-brown.

- Veil: Absent.

- Edibility: Edible

- Dimensions: Caps 1-5 cm wide; stipes 2.5-10 cm long and 1-3 mm thick.

Special adaptations:

- Grows of decaying wood

- Mycena haematopusobtains nutrients from decomposing organic matter (saprobic) and the fruit bodies can typically be found growing on stumps and well-decayed logs, usually in groups that are joined together by a common base.

-Several unique chemicals are produced by Mycena haematopus. The primary pigment ishaematopodin B, which is so chemically sensitive (breaking down upon exposure to air and light) that its more stable breakdown product, haematopodin

- releases a red juice that looks like blood