Hygrocybe helobia, H miniata and H citrinovirens

[SheffieldLass]

Thought I share some pictures of some very pretty red dry tufty Hygrocybes, as there are not any photos of them in the Gallery, and no result on WAB search either. Not H miniata which I thought they were going to be, though the gills didn't look quite right, but H helobia, which the long regular gill trama helped in coming to an id.



By comparison H miniata found 3 fields away on the same day. These were tiny. These had a short, subregular gill trama.



Those two are very similar and i'll bet that H helobia sometimes get misidentified as H miniata. I'm not sure about the garlic smell. Mine had a 'going off' smell by the time I got round to looking at them microscopically, which would have overpowered any garlic smell ....

Also Hygrocybe citrinovirens. First time I've found these, or at least id'd them. I suspect that on that very field the last two years they were ones I didn't get a name for. They have a nice lime hue to them, and are very brittle. I'm not sure if the white veil over them is part of them or something else.



Melanie

[waxcap]

Hi

I just found this old thread so I looked through my Hygrocybe photos from last year and I think I found H. helobia amongst my H. miniata photos.


Hygrocybe helobia


Hygrocybe miniata


does that look right?

Dave

[waxcap]

I suppose there's no way to be sure without the microscopy and the references.

Dave

[fairplay]

Originally Posted by waxcap

I suppose there's no way to be sure without the microscopy and the references.

Dave

I'm afraid I am not qualified to say much as I do not have the old or updated version of 'The genus Hygrocybe' by David Boertmann.
It's quite frustrating because when I recently went to Kew for a fungi lecture there were some decent books for sale including the old version which I had placed to one side whilst I continued looking at and choosing other books I wanted.
Unfortunately, a young female entered the room and picked up the book and started browsing through it. I decided to keep my mouth shut as I already had my arms full of books and didn't want to appear to be greedy and hoped she would put it down and move on - she never, instead she bought it.
Can't win them all !

Neil.

[waxcap]

Hi Neil

Was that SheffieldLass?

I'm going to buy the book and start learning a little more about the genus. I have to start somewhere!

Dave

[SheffieldLass]

Hi Dave

I personally would want to do the microscopy - I've not come across enough so don't know them well enough to be confident just on the macro appearance, unless there was a distinct smell of garlic. There may be others who are more experienced with these, though.

Boertmann says that some H helobia probably do get misidentified as H miniata.

So, though you'll probably not know about that one, at least now you know to sniff any future H miniata look-a-likes that you come across.

I was only looking through my waxcap lists yesterday ... there is now a desire to protect some of our best waxcap grasslands as SSSIs, so I was gathering some info to forward on to others. Certainly in the Peak District most of the best sites are just outside the SSSI areas as they are moorland edge rather than full blown moorland, so don't come under the moorland SSSIs. And they are often heavily sheep grazed so don't appear at first glance to be special sites.

I did notice that some of my Hygrocybe intermedia records were in July and early August. And Hygrocybe citrinovirens were early August. Not the typical season for looking for waxcaps. Perhaps that is why they are rarely recorded, because we aren't looking for them at the right time. Or maybe being predominantly early ones and at the height of summer when it is often too dry, possibly they don't appear every year anyway. I know H conica is an early one. And also my records suggest that H glutinipes tends to be early too, predominantly August and September.

Melanie

[waxcap]

Thanks Melanie,

There's a good variety of Waxcaps on the grazed land in the New Forest and last year I found H. insipida, H. psittacina, H. irrigata, H. conica, H. coccinea and H. calyptriformis on my mossy, unimproved lawn.

I'll have a look for them from July this year and, armed with a decent reference book, I'll learn a bit more about whats around here.

Dave

[yvonnem]

Hi,
Just comment about Melanie's problem of the waxcaps being outside the SSSIs - we are looking at the West Pennine moors proposed SSSI and like you find the same issue.However Natural England have agreed to looking at extending the SSSI to include these waxcap rich areas so it may be worth contacting them to do the same in your area, particularly as you have comprehensive records.

Yvonne

[JdeV]

I have that issue. Having spotted a good range of waxcaps in rarely trodden pastures in Denbighshire over the last few years I find the farmer has recently turned over a lot of the land to crops.