Description of basidiome based on information from further collections

Pileus very variable in size from 3-20 mm diam., parabolic, with slight umbo when young to convex with age, never flattening, brilliant crimson, sometimes darker in centre to pinkish towards the margin, surface very finely fibrillose under a lens (Fibrils darker red), dry, pellucid striate to 2/3 distance from the edge, margin smooth to unevenly crenulate when older, becoming darker red with age; drying brick-red lo black, depending on fresh state and speed of drying. Lamellae adnexed, ascending, in 3 series but irregularly so (e.g., 1 long, 1 intermediate, 1 short, 1 long), up to 16 reaching the stipe, pinkish, usually with a conspicuously red, fimbriate margin when fresh, although colour may fade, medium width (2-3 mm), not crowded, somewhat ventricose. Stipe 15-55 X 2 mm, bright red (7E6), darker at base, paler above (dark where it joins the cap), smooth, shining, hollow, even for most of length but slightly swollen at the base which bears conspicuous, coarse, red hairs (colour retained on drying), fragile, exuding blood red latex when broken; drying dark red to black. Taste unknown, odour said to be of iodiform.

Microscopically, there is some variability among the collections in the degree of branching both of the apex of the cheilocystidia and of the elements of the pileipellis. Some ventricose elements with very irregular apices among the cheilocystidia appear to be the endings of lactifers, more swollen than those detected in the type material. There seemed no evidence of caulocystidia or terminal cells, the stipe cortex being smooth except for emerging hairs near the base. Clamp connections were fairly frequent. The conidia-like bodies were found in most of the material examined.

ETYMOLOGY: ura is Maori for crimson red the colour pohutukawa flowers (Metrosideros excelsa Sol. et Gaert.).

M. ura is one of the commonly collected species of Mycena in New Zealand forests, possibly rendered more conspicuous by its bright red colour. The lack of caulocystidia and the persistently red stipe after drying makes the assigning of this fungus to either of Maas Geesteranus sections Galactopoda or Sanguinolentae problematical. Microscopically it has much in common wit. M. haematopus (Pers.: Fr.) Kummer ( = "haematopoda") described by Maas Geesteranus (1988), but macroscopically M. haematopus is a much more robust, drab-coloured fungus. Singer (1969) believed M. miniata Stevenson might be the same as M. haematopoda var. chilensis Sing. Horak (1983), in his discussion of the fungal biogeography of the South Pacific, included M. haematopoda Pers.: Fr. as a southern species but did not include M. miniata as a synonym of it, evidently believing the latter to be a distinct species. Certainly his description (1979) of M. haematopoda in Tierra del Fuego as sub fasciculate, pale to dark dull vinaceous, lamellae whitish, with vinaceous juice, and of the Chilean var. by Raitelhuber (1987) as dull chestnut or reddish chestnut with chestnut juice, does not appear to relate to M. ura with its usually bright red colours. The red colour of the pileus, the red juice, the red hairs at the base of the stipe and the conidia-like structures associated with the pileipellis are cry characteristic of this fungus.