Clusters of reddish-capped mushrooms growing from dead hardwood in late fall? Sounds like "brick cap," currently known as Hypholoma lateritium* when it occurs in the eastern United States. Very similar mushrooms probably produced by related but different species of fungi occur in Europe and Asia.

*Brick-colored, woven-edged

Photos by cottonmanifesto. Location: Olmsted Park.

Urban species #322: Brick top Hypholoma sublateritium.

This mushroom gets its name from the reddish color of its cap. It is also sometimes called "brick cap," and "cinnamon cap" for the same reason. In Japan, where it is a favored edible wild mushroom, it is called Kuritake, which means "chestnut mushroom." Mushroom guides give contradictory advice about eating this species (it is easily confused with inedible species) but it is apparently best eaten when young, before insects have gotten into it, causing it to produce a bitter taste. What compound gives the infested mushrooms this taste is not known to me, though it is interesting to note that researchers have isolated antitumor chemicals from it. Brick cap is found around the world, clusters of the fruiting bodies emerging in late fall, from the wood that the fungus feeds upon.


The distinctive violet-gray color of the spore-bearing surface can be seen here.