Hygrocybe reidii
Description
Hygrocybe reidii is a mushroom of the waxcap genus Hygrocybe. The fungus makes reddish-orange to reddish fruit bodies with dry, smooth caps. The flesh has an odor of honey, particularly when the tissue is rubbed, or when it is drying. It is found in Europe, and reported from eastern North America, although it is uncertain whether the North American population represents the same species.
Common names: Honey Waxcap, Lúčnica Reidova (Slovakia), Honingwasplaat (Netherlands), Honig-Saftling (Austria), Hygrophore De Reid (France), Medainā Stiklene (Latvia).
Mushroom Identification
Ecology
Precise ecological role uncertain; growing scattered or gregariously under hardwoods or conifers; summer; North American distribution uncertain.
Cap
2-3.5 cm; convex, becoming broadly convex to planoconvex or broadly bell-shaped; bald or, under a lens, very finely fibrillose; lubricous when fresh but not sticky; bright orange; the margin scalloped when young.
Gills
Broadly attached to the stem; nearly distant; pale orange, fading to yellow; short-gills frequent.
Stem
3-5 cm long; 3-5 mm thick; more or less equal; dry; bald; pale orange, fading to yellowish; white at the base.
Flesh
Pale orange; unchanging when sliced.
Odor and Taste
Odor (best detected when specimens are drying or have been recently dried and packaged) is strongly sweet and slightly foul, reminiscent of honey going bad; taste not distinctive.
Chemical Reactions
KOH negative on cap surface.
Spore Print
White.
Microscopic Features
Spores 6-10 x 4-5 µ; smooth; ellipsoid; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Basidia 2- and 4-spored; to about 55 µ long. Hymenial cystidia absent. Lamellar trama parallel or nearly so. Pileipellis a cutis.
Similar Species
Gliophorus laetus has an orange cap but its gills have a grey tinge; when crushed it smells of burnt rubber.
History
Many of the currently recognised Hygrocybe species have a relatively short taxonomic history because they were either hidden within a complex of taxa under a single specific name or were consistently misidentified. The annals of Hygrocybe reidii do not stretch back far, its currently accepted name stemming from a 1996 publication by German mycologist Robert Kühner (1903 - 1996).
It is synonymous with Hygrophorus reidii (Kühner) and with a 1960 description by R W G Dennis, P. D. Orton & F B Hora that was (invalidly) given the name Hygrocybe marchii. The Honey Waxcap is very similar to a much rarer waxcap that is now generally accepted as Hygrocybe marchii and was described by German-born mycologist Rolf Singer (1906 - 1994) almost a decade earlier, in 1951.
The genus Hygrocybe is so named because fungi in this group are always very moist. Hygrocybe means 'watery head'.
A few fungi have been named in honor of a great botanist or mycologist of the past, and the Honey Waxcap's specific epithet reidii honors British mycologist Derek Agutter Reid (1927 - 2006), who for many years held the post of the head of mycology at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Holger Krisp (CC BY 3.0)
Photo 2 - Author: Nicolò Oppicelli (Nicolò Oppicelli) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 3 - Author: Eric Steinert (CC BY-SA 3.0)
