Plants and animals of Pointfield

Cap to ca. 8 cm in diameter, initially bell-shaped, becoming flatter then eventually concave; surface finely scaly, often cracked with purplish or dark grey flecks separated by white fissures; blackening with age. Gills free, pure white, fine, unbranched and dense. Stalk relatively stout with thin, but clear ring; white above ring but reddish / mauve beneath. Tissue bleeds red when bruised or cut.  

Spore print white. Spores amygdaloid, lemon-pip like; translucent in KOH, staining dark brown in Metzer's; smooth; rather thick-walled; 6.7-8.2 x 3.7-4.1 um, mean 7.4 x 3.9 um, N = 20. Cheilocystidia mostly clavate, some with a small papilliform apex; common. Pleurocystidia absent. Cap of dense pigmented cells from which come sprouts of large hyphae, without clamps and tapered ends.

Growing near base of grass pile underneath holly trees. Several specimens growing in 2021.