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Tiny orange mushrooms at a boulder base
Unidentified small orange agaric Uncertain
Angles captured. Wide establishing shot showing the boulder, then four progressively closer views.
Morphology
Very small — caps roughly 5–12 mm, bright orange to apricot, convex, smooth. Two or three fruitbodies clustered together plus one isolated. Stipes short, pale orange. Gills not visible in any frame.
Habitat & substrate
Bare mineral soil in the drip line at the base of a large granite boulder, with fine roots exposed. No leaf litter — a wet, scoured microsite.
Lookalikes & what rules them out
Small orange agarics are a genuinely hard group (Hygrocybe, Marasmius, Gymnopus, Xeromphalina, Chrysomphalina). Nothing here separates them.
To confirm this identification
A photo of the underside is the missing piece — gill spacing, attachment and whether they are waxy or dry would narrow this to a genus in one shot.
Notes
Very likely the same colony as TM0025, photographed again the following evening — see that entry.
Found at Massasoit Rd area, Worcester, MA on Friday, 31 July 2026 at 18:03. See the full walk for that day's weather and everything else recorded.
Others in this group
Pink-tan capped agaricUnidentified agaric · Jul 31Low
White-capped agaric in litterUnidentified agaric · Jul 31Low
White cap in leaf litterUnidentified agaric · Jul 31Low
Orange-and-yellow cap in oak litterUnidentified · Aug 1Low–moderate
Fly agaric buttonAmanita muscaria var. guessowii · Aug 1High
Tiny orange mushrooms at a boulder base — revisitUnidentified small orange agaric · Aug 1Low
White agaric in grassUnidentified agaric · Aug 1Low
Large buff funnel with decurrent gillsUnidentified · Aug 6Low