About this fungus
Pink Domecap is a fungus in the Lyophyllaceae family. Its habitat and field characteristics are summarised below.
A small, neat grassland mushroom with a smooth dry flesh-pink cap, a similarly coloured stem and crowded pale gills.
What to check
Look for a cap that begins convex and may flatten or develop a shallow central depression. The crowded white to cream gills are attached or shallowly notched. The slender pink stem has no ring or volva, and the spore print is white to pale cream.
Variation
Fresh caps can be bright pink, while older or weathered specimens fade to pale pink-buff or almost white. Solitary or small-group growth is usual, but the boundary with the clustered C. persicolor concept is not settled consistently by all sources.
Lookalikes
Pink waxcaps have thicker, more widely spaced waxy gills, unlike the crowded dry-looking gills here. Calocybe persicolor or C. persicina is described differently by different authors and may require microscopic or regional expertise. Small pink grassland mushrooms should not be identified from colour alone.
Habitat and range
Saprotrophic in lawns, meadows, parkland, heath and other short grass, with occasional records from grassy woodland edges. It is reported from Europe, Asia and North America.
Food safety
Edibility is uncertain or disputed.
Photographs
Strobilomyces / CC BY-SA 3.0