Hygrophorus bakerensis

Description

Hygrophorus bakerensis is a species of Fungi in the family Hygrophoraceae. It is characterized by its medium to large, relatively slender-statured fruitbodies with a pleasant almond odor, and growth often on or near rotting conifer wood. The viscid cap is brown in the center and cream to white near its incurved edge, the gills and stipe are white, and the latter often appears somewhat powdery or dandruffy in the upper portion. It is edible, but low quality, fungus.

This mushroom is common throughout the PNW and extends into northern California (where it is less common).

Common names: Brown Almond Waxy-Cap, Mt Baker Waxy-Cap.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   4-15cm across, obtuse to convex becoming broadly convex or flat; cinnamon brown to yellow-brown or tawny, margin usually paler or whitish; slimy or viscid when moist, smooth, (Arora), 4-15cm across, obtuse when young, the margin incurved at first becoming flat or uplifted; disc some shade of yellow-brown, paler toward margin (disc "sudan brown" shading to "tawny-olive" or "amber brown" shading to "cinnamon-buff" toward the whitish margin); glutinous when wet, merely viscid when old, appressed-fibrillose fibers below the gluten, margin cottony, (Hesler)

2. Flesh

   Thick; white, (Arora), thick 1cm near the stem) tapering evenly to margin, firm; white, unchanging when cut or bruised, (Hesler)

3. Gills

   Decurrent but varying to adnate, soft, somewhat waxy; white to creamy or pinkish buff; sometimes beaded with droplets in warm weather, (Arora), decurrent or soon becoming so, close to subdistant (56-88 reaching stem), 2-3 tiers of subgills, gills narrow but becoming broad in large caps (0.8-1.2cm broad); creamy white, unchanging; edges even, (Hesler)

4. Stem

   4-15cm x 0.8-2.5cm, equal or narrowing downward, solid; white to pinkish buff; dry, smooth, sometimes beaded with droplets in warm weather, (Arora), (4)7-14cm x 0.8-2.5cm at top, equal or narrowing downward, solid; white or pale pinkish buff; dry, cottony pruinose at the top when young, merely unpolished overall when old, not staining when bruised, often beaded with clear drops in moist weather, (Hesler)

5. Veil

   Absent (Arora)

6. Odor

   Sweet but sometimes faint, like almond extract or crushed peach pits, "heavy but fragrant and very characteristic, reminding one somewhat of almonds", odor easily missed if one has just a few fruiting bodies, but in large collections very distinct, (Hesler)

7. Taste

   Mild (Hesler)

8. Spore Print

   White.

9. Microscopic Spores

   Spores 7.5-10 x 4.5-6 microns, elliptic, smooth; gill tissue divergent, (Arora), spores 7-9(10) x 4.5-5(6) microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid; basidia 4-spored, 40-54 x 6-8 microns; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia absent; gill tissue divergent; clamp connections present in cap cuticle and gill trama, (Hesler).

Look-Alikes

1. Hygrophorus variicolor

   Differs only in having a stipe made slimy by a gelatinous veil.

2. Hygrophorus tennesseensis

   Is another look-alike species but has a farinaceous odor (like raw potatoes) and a bitter taste.

3. Hygrophorus arbustivus

   European species found under oaks.

4. Hygrophorus discoideus

   Also European species; there is a North American equivalent H. discoideus var. californius found at high elevations in the Sierra Nevada.

5. Collybia oregonensis

   Has a similar coloration and odor but has adnexed or notched and non-waxy gills.

6. Hygrophorus agathosmus

   Has a strong almond odor but it forms smaller fruitbodies with gray to brownish-gray caps.

History

The species was first described scientifically by American mycologists Alexander H. Smith and Lexemuel Ray Hesler in a 1942 publication. The specific epithet bakerensis refers to Mount Baker, a volcano in the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, where the mushroom was first collected.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Ryane Snow (snowman) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Ryane Snow (snowman) (CC BY-SA 3.0)