Portrait of a pink mushroom: Rugosomyces carneus

Buoyed up by a flurry of recent finds in my local churchyard, I thought I'd see what was happening out on the village greens and cricket pitches in the wilds of West Sussex.

Not a lot, as it turns out.

The cricket season having only recently drawn to a close, the pitches were mown short. Still, a smattering of Pink Dome Cap Rugosomyces carneus had seized their opportunity. 

They were looking pretty fine. Their rosey pink caps contrasting with crowded white gills, atop a pink stem.

Must've popped up in the last few days, after the rain.

I checked a few books when I got home to see if there are any other species one might confuse them with, but I think I'm on pretty solid ground ID'ing these from their field characteristics. The hairy-felty stem base, visible above, is another characteristic feature.

Some books reference a similar-looking, rarely-recorded species with a clustered / tufted growing habitat: Calocybe persicolor. But my finds were all growing singly.

I found them growing in a scattered group on the village green in Lurgashall.

And in a pentangle on the cricket pitch at Ebernoe.

Only the odd Orange Mosscap Rickenella fibula joined them on the pitch.

So – too early still for waxcaps. But the sward was looking nice and mossy in places. I'll be back for another visit later in the season.

And nice to see the Chamomile Chamaemelum nobile flowering in an unmown corner of the cricket pitch at Ebernoe.

For the record
Date: 28/09/2019