Mica Cap

Description:

Medium to small sized, amber colored, gilled mushrooms. Grow in clustered groups. Tiny, mica-like granules can be found on fresh caps (can be seen as a dusty looking coating in the pictures), often gets washed off by rain or dew. Decay rapidly to black "ink".

Habitat:

Suburban lawn. Grow on decaying wood. These were most likely growing from wood mulch or roots from a maple tree that was removed a couple of years ago from that area.

Notes:

I witnessed a mockingbird feeding at these mushrooms in the yard recently. It may have been feeding on flies attracted to the mushroom or on the mushrooms themselves. Edible before mushrooms begins to degrade.