Mycena 'clarkeana group'

These mushrooms (smelling weakly of radish and akin to Mycena clarkeana) were on a segment of eucalypt branch (20 cm long, 8 wide) that had been on the ground for some years. The cluster in Photo 1 grew from near the top of the cut face of the wood. Photo 2 shows the same cluster. On the left of Photo 3 you see an immature cluster, when the cap colour is more intense. That photo was taken on May 27 and the mushrooms were still under a centimetre tall. This cluster grew from the curved side of the wood, here turned slightly to show the stems, which were roughly parallel to the ground. On the right is part of the same cluster, photographed on June 5. The heavily chewed cap in the foreground measures 13 millimetres across. Since May 27 the stems have curved up so as to ensure that, when open, the caps are orientated so as to have the gills vertical. Photo 4 shows another colony of presumably the same species, photographed on May 5. The pale wood flake a little below left of centre is also visible in much the same position in Photo 5 (taken on May 27). This colony was growing from the lower surface of the wood and, all going well, these stems would eventually become much longer than those in the other clusters, and bring the caps out into the open. However, over the month that I’ve been looking at this wood, the underside almost always had invertebrates crawling over it, in particular a small, shiny blackish species (one of which is pointed to by the white arrow). These were often over the caps, possibly eating the mushrooms and the red arrow points to a heavily chewed cap. This colony was developing very slowly and by June 5 there had been no obvious advance over that shown in the May 27 photo. The two clusters shown in Photos 1-3 developed much more quickly, there having been no evidence of either cluster before mid May. Indeed, the immature cluster in the left half of Photo 3 caught me by surprise, after I hadn’t looked at the wood for some days.