Dermoloma magicum is a rare easily identified saprotrophic agaric fungus, only known from less than 30 localities in Western Europe. It typically occurs with only 1-2 mycelia per locality. It is growing in old, semi-natural grasslands. The total number of localities, included unrecorded ones, is estimated not to exceed 100. 

Dermoloma magicum belongs to the European fungal assemblage whose populations have been subjected to large declines due to strongly impaired area and quality of their grassland habitat. This assemblage is declining and continue to decline across Europe due to changes in land use (agricultural intensification and decline of traditional farming practices), use of fertilizers and deposition of atmospheric nitrogen.

Based on the small population and ongoing decline of its habitat, D. magnicum meets the threshold for EN (C2 ai).

Dermoloma magicum is a very rare fungus confined to Western Europe (Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and United Kingdom) and Czech Republic. The species is well-characterized and easily separated from other Dermoloma species by the red, then black discolouration of the entire basidiocarp, but may be more distributed than known. It was only recently discovered in Czech Republic and Germany (Egertová Z. & Kříž M (2010; Gminder et al., 2015). However, the species is well-characterized and therefore certainly very rare. It is not yet known from Scandinavia, where the fungi of seminatural grasslands grasslands have been intensively studied.

At present, Dermoloma magicum is known from less than 30 localities (5 in Germany, 4 in UK, 2 in the Netherlands, 1 in Belgium and 1 in Czech Republic), each with very small populations, comprising 1-2 mycelia or individuals (Gminder et al., 2015). The maximum number of localities (including undiscovered ones) is estimated not to exceed 100 and the total number of individuals to be less than 200. The trend in the Netherlands is decreasing and it has not been recorded since 1995. It is assessed that the species has decreased strongly in the past in view of the strong decline of its habitat during the last 50 years and that the decline is ongoing (cf European Environment Agency 2015).

Dermoloma magicum grows probably saprotrophic on soil components, but the life-form of Dermoloma has not yet been specifically studied and clarified. It occurs in seminatural old meadows and hayfields on calcareous, loamy soil.  It is usually found together with many other characteristic species of old, seminatural grasslands (Entoloma spp., Hygrocybe spp.; Arnolds, 2015).

Dermoloma magicum is threatened by habitat destruction, either by improvement of old, seminatural grassland for agriculture on an industrial scale (e.g. by fertilizer application), or on the other side by lack of management, leading to succession of grassland to forest. Ongoing nitrogen deposition is a threat as it results in increasing productivity of seminatural grasslands,causes loss of habitat quality.
More than 75% of the grassland habitats in the EU are in an unfavourable conservation status, according to draft data provided by Member States under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive. According to the European Environment Agency (2015), natural and semi-natural grasslands have undergone a major decline in recent decades. Grasslands have one of the lowest proportions (11%) of favourable condition assessments and one of the highest proportions of decreasing assessments of all the terrestrial ecosystems considered. About 49 % of EU assessments for the 45 grassland habitat types of Community interest are “unfavourable-bad”. Moreover, almost 50% of grassland-associated birds are declining and the conservation status of other species is mostly “unfavourable”. Grassland butterflies, for example, are declining severely and there is no sign of level-ling off. Accordingly, Janssen et al. (2016) (European Red List of Habitats) reported that 53 % of the grassland habitats in Europe are threatened to some degree (the second most threatened habitat type after “mires and bogs”).

Conservation of sites; management by grazing and mowing (removal of nutrients); reduction of nitrogen pollution in surrounding area

Monitoring of populations would be useful for a better understanding of its biology and fluctuations.

The species is not known to be used.

Arnolds, E. 2002. Dermoloma magicum spec. nov., a grassland fungus mimicking Porpoloma metapodium. Persoonia 17: 665-668.
Arnolds, E. 2015. Wasplatengraslanden in Nederland. Deel 1. Ecologische en vegetatiekundige aspecten. Stratiotes 47: 45-75.
Egertová Z. & Kříž M (2010): Dermoloma magicum in the Czech Republic. -  Mykologické listy 111: 1-5.

European Environment Agency (2015). State of nature in the EU. Technical report No 2/2015. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen.

J.A.M. Janssen, J.S. Rodwell, M. García Criado, S. Gubbay, T. Haynes, A. Nieto, N. Sanders, F. Lan-ducci, J. Loidi, A. Ssymank, T. Tahvanainen, M. Valderrabano, A. Acosta, M. Aronsson, G. Arts, F. Attorre, E. Bergmeier, R.-J. Bijlsma, F. Bioret, C. Biţă-Nicolae, I. Biurrun, M. Calix, J. Capelo, A. Čar-ni, M. Chytrý, J. Dengler, P. Dimopoulos, F. Essl, H. Gardfjell, D. Gigante, G. Giusso del Galdo, M. Hájek, F. Jansen, J. Jansen, J. Kapfer, A. Mickolajczak, J.A. Molina, Z. Molnár, D. Paternoster, A. Piernik, B. Poulin, B. Renaux, J.H.J. Schaminée, K. Šumberová, H. Toivonen, T. Tonteri, I. Tsiripidis, R. Tzonev and M. Valachovič, (2016). European Red List of habitats. Part 2, terrestrial and freshwater habitats. European Union, Luxembourg.

Gminder, A., A. Kunze, A. Staber & S. Wittmann. 2015. Dermoloma magicum - neu für Bayern und Thüringen - im Vergeich mit Porpoloma metapodium, Neohygrocybe ovina und Hygrocybe ingrata. Z. Mykologie, in press. 
Henrici, A. 2002. Notes and Records. Field Mycology 3: 105-106.