Hygrocybe reidii - Honey Waxcap

Taxonomy

Phylum: Basidiomycota

Class: Agaricomycetes

Order: Agaricales

Common and widespread, the Honey Waxcap is one of the dry, scurfy-capped members of its genus, many of which are either greasy or slimy with smooth cap surfaces. At maturity it is not uncommon for the caps to distort and split radially.

Cap colour is a poor guide to identification of orange and red waxcaps in particular, and so it is essential to check the texture of both the cap and the stem as well as gill spacing and the form of the gill attachment.

The common name is not a reference to the colour of this lovely grassland fungus, which in most instances is a deeper orange than any honey that we know of, but to its odour, which is strongest in the flesh of the lower part of the stem. If you do not have a particularly good sense of smell but would nevertheless like to check this out, scratch the surface of a stem base and then place it into a sealed box or polythene bag and leave it there for a few minutes; sniff it immediately after opening the container.

Identification Guide

	Cap 2 to 5cm in diameter; bright orange or orange-red but fading to dingy orange or orange-yellow with age, often paler at the margin. The conical caps are convex, flattening and often becoming centrally depressed; the surface is dry and scurfy except in very wet weather; striations rarely visible. When very dry the margins of mature caps tend to crack.
	Gills The broadly adnate to decurrent gills are widely spaced and they are coloured as the caps but somewhat paler.
Stem	Cylindrical or laterally compressed, often with irregular grooves, the stem is 2.5 to 6mm in diameter and 2 to 6cm tall; it has no ring.
Spore print	White.
Spores	Elipsoid, (6)6.5 to 8.5 x 4 to 5(7.5)μm.
Odour/taste	Odour of honey; taste not distinctive.
Habitat	On lawns, in churchyards, on fixed sand dunes, and on meadows and other areas of closely cropped or mown grassland where artificial fertilisers are not spread.
Season	August to November.
Occurrence	Common.
Similar species	Hygrocybe laeta has an orange cap but its gills have a grey tinge; when crushed it smells of burnt rubber.