Solitary or in small groups in both deciduous as well as coniferous forests. On many substrates, e. g. needle beds, apparently on the ground or on woody debris or on fallen, decaying logs (Alnus, Fagus, Salix, Tilia etc.), often in humid sites. Summer to autumn. Widespread but generally rare and red listed in many countries. Probably more common in northern parts of Europe. Regarded as Least Concern (LC) in both Sweden, Finland and Norway (Red list 2021).

Pileus 3-7 mm across and 2-5 mm high, cylindrical, not expanding with age, generally depressed at the centre, glabrous, sulcate, translucent-striate, greyish or violaceous grey to dark brown with blackish grey striae, the margin pallid, ochraceous or fulvous. Lamellae 18 - 24 reaching the stipe, broader than the length, horizontal to decurrent, pale grey or pale buff, the edge paler or darker, pale fulvous. Stipe 20-38 x 1-3 mm, hollow, equal, straight to somewhat curved, glabrous, cartilaginous, yellow-brown or fulvous or black brown at the apex, darker towards reddish brown farther down, the base springing from a whorl of radiating, fulvous fibrils. Odour and taste indistinctive.

Basidia 21-22 x 7-8 μm, clavate, 4-spored (and 2-spored). Spores 6.5-10(-11.5) x 4-5 μm, Q 1.6-2.0, Qav≈1.8, pip-shaped to broadly pip-shaped, smooth, amyloid. Cheilocystidia made up of contiguous chains of inflated cells, of which the terminal cells are 13.5-24 x 9-16 μm, obpyriform, globose, ellipsoid or, more rarely, clavate, variously diverticulate, with the excrescences straight to curved, simple or, more rarely, furcate or branched, 1-6(-14.5) x 1-1.5 μm. These terminal cells are easily mistaken as the entire cheilocystidia because these are the parts which come more easily detached on tapping the cover glass. Pleurocystidia absent. Hyphae of the pileipellis 1-5 μm wide, smooth. Hyphae of the cortical layer of the stipe 2.5-6 μm wide, smooth, without caulocystidia. Clamp connections present, but often hard to find, at the base of the basidia, the hyphae of the pileipellis and the lower cells of the cheilocystidia; the terminal cells of the cheilocystidia being unclamped.

The macroscopic description is based on Bendiksen & Halvorsen (1984), Maas Geesteranus (1983), Harmaja (1979), and one collection from Vestfold, South Norway. The microscopic details are based on examination of a Finnish find, kindly put to my disposition by Jukka Vauras, and two Norwegian collections.

Mycena picta is the monotype of sect. Pictae (A.H. Sm.) Maas Geest. It is readily identified on account of the cylindrical pileus and the horizontal, somewhat decurrent lamellae.

Microphotos of cheilocystidia