Hygrocybe chlorophana

Description

Hygrocybe chlorophana is a species of mushroom in the family Hygrophoraceae. The cap has an orange color and conical, as it flattens out it becomes much paler and yellow. It has a greasy feel but can seem slimy in wet weather. The gills are adnate, pale yellow or off-white, widely spaced, and fairly thick. Transverse ‘gills’ running between the main gills are often visible. Stem usually straight and sticky to slimy feeling. Habitat on fields, meadows, heaths, open woodland, grasslands, lawn, and roadsides, they prefer land that has not been fertilized, treated with chemicals, or plowed.

The species has a large north temperate distribution, occurring in grassland in Europe and woodland in North America and northern Asia; it has also been reported from mountainous areas of southern Australia.

In Europe, H. chlorophana is typical of waxcap grasslands, a declining habitat due to changing agricultural practices. Though considered to be one of the commoner species in the genus, the golden waxcap nonetheless appears on the official or provisional national red lists of threatened fungi in several European countries, including Germany (Bavaria), Poland, and Switzerland. In 1997, the species was featured on a postage stamp issued by the Faeroe Islands.

Common names: Golden Waxcap.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   The cap of Hygrocybe chlorophana, initially domed, is yellow with sometimes an orange or very occasionally a red tinge most noticeably towards the center. The cap is very slimy in wet weather; it becomes broadly umbonate or even flat with age and grows to between 2 and 4cm in diameter. The thin cap flesh is yellow.

2. Gills

   Yellow, becoming a paler lemon-yellow as the fruit body ages, the gills are adnate, broad, and fairly distant.

3. Stem

   Colored as the cap, the slender stem (typically 2 to 3mm diameter) is viscid and has no ring; its flesh is yellowish and solid.

4. Spores

   Ellipsoidal, smooth, some with constrictions or with one side concave (almost kidney-shaped), 7-8.5 x 4-5μm; inamyloid. The Q value (length to width ratio) varies considerably but is typically 1.5 to 1.9.

5. Spore Print

   White.

6. Odor and Taste

   Not distinctive.

Look-Alikes

1. Hygrocybe ceracea

   Similar but noticeably drier and usually smaller, with adnate or even very slightly decurrent gills; its stem becomes hollow with age.

2. Hygrocybe glutinipes

   Similar in form and color, but it is typically smaller, and as the specific epithet suggests it has a glutinous cap and stem.

3. Hygrocybe flavescens

   Very similar in appearance, but is said to have a drier stipe. Boertmann (2010) has suggested it may not be distinct from H. chlorophana.

History

This lovely waxcap was first described in 1821 by Elias Magnus Fries, who named it Agaricus chlorophanus.

In 1877 a German mycologist, Friedrich Otto Wünsche (1839 - 1905), transferred this species to its present genus.

Other synonyms of Hygrocybe chlorophana include Hygrocybe euroflavescens Kühner, Bull., Hygrophorus euroflavescens (Kühner) Dennis, Hygrophorus chlorophanus (Fr.) Fr., and Hygrocybe flavescens.

The genus Hygrocybe is so named because fungi in this group are always very moist. Hygrocybe means 'watery head'.

The specific epithet chlorophana is something of a misnomer, because it translates to pale green whereas this particular waxcap is predominantly yellow, orange, or somewhere between these two.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Dan Molter (shroomydan) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 2 - Author: gailhampshire (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Jymm (Public Domain)

Photo 4 - Author: Holger Krisp (CC BY 3.0)

Photo 5 - Author: Dr. Hans-Günter Wagner (CC BY-SA 2.0)