Another Unidentified Waxcap

[theresa dockery]

Sorry for bombarding the fungi forum with ID requests - I'm trying to do a 'spring cleaning' of all the photos on my hard drive from last summer - it's taken me all winter to sort through them!

I found these waxcaps on the same day as the waxcap in my previous thread, but at a different location.

---------------

Date collected: 8th August.

Habitat: rough grassland in central Scotland.

Spore print: white.

Texture: dry stem & very moist cap.

Dimensions: cap = 3.6 cm diameter, stem = 4.4cm in length & approx. 0.7cm diameter (specimen 1).

Next 3 photos are of 3 different fruiting bodies:

1.


2.


3.


Detail of cap:


Details of gills:

[mollisia]

Hello,

though the cap has a somewhat conical shape, it might be a somewhat misshaped Hygrocybe chlorophana. But when the conical shape is typical for the species you show us, and the cap was that glutinous, it probably is something else. I feel that in this case microscopy would be necessary. But there are better waxcap specialists here in the forum, let's see what they say .....

best regards,
Andreas

[SheffieldLass]

My gut feeling is that they are H chlorophana, or at least some of those - the gill photos look right, but I too would like microscopy to confirm.

Melanie

[theresa dockery]

I had a wee go at identifying the waxcap from a key (thanks Chris!) - with Hygrocybe chlorophana being the best match.

Looking at the Roger's Mushrooms website (which covers more than just the UK), the closest contenders appear to be: Hygrocybe chlorophana/chlorophanus, Hygrocybe ceracea & Hygrocybe langei.

The photo of H.chlorophana on the website doesn't look much like my specimens (but I seem to recall that the book features yellower-looking specimens?). Habitat is mentioned as being 'soil in open woods'?
Apparently, the stem has a 'really sticky coating that is characteristic of Hygrophorus chlorophanus'...which was not the case. Time of year seems good.

H.langei is a good match visually and is found in summer, but it's not clear from this website if this species is found in the UK or not (I noticed it was missing from many UK waxcap websites/keys, unless it has changed names?).

H.ceracea seems also a good match visually but seems just a little small. I don't recall there being a 'distinctive smell' of any kind. Season is autumn?

That's as far as I can get with internet resources

[mollisia]

Hello Theresa,

I don't think we come closer without microscopy.
Season of fruiting is no character at all in my experience, though there are some species which are tentatively earlier in season then others.

Hygrocybe langei is a synonym to Hygrocybe persistens, or at least a very close species. The whole persistens group is characterized by big spores and unchanging flesh. They are the sister group to the blackeing Hygrocybe(s), e.g. H. conica, and differ only in the non-blackening context. Means they are equally dry on cap and especially stem, and also the stem is distinctly fibrillous. I don't see that really in your picture.

Hygrocybe ceracea is sometimes used for different species. In the sense of BOERTMAN, who is widely accepted I think (also in UK to my knowledge), H. ceracea is a smaller species with flat cap which usually is at least at the margin translucent striate. I don't think that yours is H. ceracea.

H. chlorophana is in my eyes still the nearest hit macroscopically. Cap and stem of this species are quite slippery in wet conditzions, though never really glutinouse like e.g. H. glutinipes or psittacina is.

The persistens group could be rouled out by the big spores, the H. chlorophana by its longer trama hyphae.

best regards,
Andreas

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by theresa dockery

I had a wee go at identifying the waxcap from a key (thanks Chris!) - with Hygrocybe chlorophana being the best match.

Looking at the Roger's Mushrooms website (which covers more than just the UK), the closest contenders appear to be: Hygrocybe chlorophana/chlorophanus, Hygrocybe ceracea & Hygrocybe langei.

The photo of H.chlorophana on the website doesn't look much like my specimens (but I seem to recall that the book features yellower-looking specimens?). Habitat is mentioned as being 'soil in open woods'?
Apparently, the stem has a 'really sticky coating that is characteristic of Hygrophorus chlorophanus'...which was not the case. Time of year seems good.

H.langei is a good match visually and is found in summer, but it's not clear from this website if this species is found in the UK or not (I noticed it was missing from many UK waxcap websites/keys, unless it has changed names?).

H.ceracea seems also a good match visually but seems just a little small. I don't recall there being a 'distinctive smell' of any kind. Season is autumn?

That's as far as I can get with internet resources

H chlorophana and indeed all the Hygrocybe are very much associated with grassland in Britain. I think in places like Sweden they are perhaps more associated with woodland, but it will be mossy, grassy places within woodland. H chlorophana can vary from being very sticky/viscid to almost dry depending on the weather. I've found them with a slightly conical shape, and with an orangy hue too. They seem to have quite a long fruiting season.

Hygrocybe langei is now Hygrocybe persistens var persistens. (Boertmann in his Hygrocybe monograph did us a favour by combining a lot together - it was because the waxcaps can be so variable that they'd been split into to so many species by others) That tends to have a distinct conical shape, rather like H conica

H ceracea has broadly adnate to decurrent gills.

[theresa dockery]

Thanks Andreas & Melanie!

Originally Posted by mollisia

Season of fruiting is no character at all in my experience, though there are some species which are tentatively earlier in season then others.

That's good to know - I wasn't sure how much importance to place on this.

Originally Posted by mollisia

They are the sister group to the blackeing Hygrocybe(s), e.g. H. conica, and differ only in the non-blackening context. Means they are equally dry on cap and especially stem, and also the stem is distinctly fibrillous. I don't see that really in your picture.

I think I can probably rule H.persistens out then, as the caps weren't conical, the caps were distinctly moist and none of my specimens had fibrillose stems (all were very smooth-stemmed).

Originally Posted by SheffieldLass

the waxcaps can be so variable that they'd been split into to so many species by others.

I was so wrong to think that waxcaps were the 'easy' fungi!

From all the above information, I think I'm safe to label my photos 'probable Hygrocybe chlorophana'...

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by theresa dockery

I was so wrong to think that waxcaps were the 'easy' fungi!

...

But they make up for that by being rather colourful ... so I can forgive them.

[richickle]

i found this one at clumber and me and Pauline (PMG) spent about 30mins cross referencing different keys before concluding H.Chlorophana. won't forget it, lovely fungus