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Species Information
Summary: Features include 1) a scarlet to vermilion, finely scaly, dry cap that becomes ochre or yellowish when old, 2) deeply decurrent, orange-yellow gills, and 3) a tall, slender, dry stem that is orange at the top and orange to yellow below. The species name does not agree in gender with the genus because it is a noun rather than an adjective.
Collections were examined from WA, ON, QC, AL, FL, MA, ME, MI, NC, NJ, NY, PA, TN, Trinidad, and Venezuela, (Hesler). It has also been found in CA (Largent), and in Germany and the Netherlands, (Arnolds). There are collections from BC at Pacific Forestry Centre and the University of British Columbia. The University of Washington has collections from WA, MI, and NH.
Cap: 1-3.5cm across, convex to flattened on disc when young, becoming convex-umbilicate or sometimes disc not depressed, sometimes margin spreading or recurved [upcurved] and the cap then broadly funnel-shaped; color variable, "flame scarlet", "ochraceous orange", or "ochraceous buff", brighter when young, paler when old; dry, silky at first, then finely scurfy or lacerate-squamulose [torn - finely scaly] especially around disc, "margin even, scalloped or wavy", (Hesler), 0.5-4cm across, convex to flattened often becoming depressed in center with spreading to wavy margin; scarlet becoming vermilion, and ocher or yellowish when old; "dry, silky then scurfy-scaly", (Phillips)
Flesh: thin on disc, thinner at margin; reddish orange or yellow, (Hesler), thin, orange, (Phillips)
Gills: decurrent, subdistant to distant, broad, often triangular; orange to yellow (usually paler than cap); edges even, (Hesler), "deeply decurrent, distant, broad; pale yellowish becoming deep egg yellow", (Phillips)
Stem: (2)4-9(12)cm x 0.15-0.4(0.5)cm, equal or narrowing downward slightly, round in cross-section or somewhat flattened, stuffed to hollow, fragile; colored as cap or paler, base whitish or pallid yellowish; dry, bald, (Hesler), 3-9cm x 0.1-0.4cm, stuffed to hollow, fragile; orange at top, cap colored in lower part; dry, smooth, (Phillips)
Veil: [presumably absent]
Odor: mild (Hesler, Phillips)
Taste: mild (Hesler, Phillips)
Microscopic spores: spores 7-13 x 4-8 microns, specifically in 4-spored forms 7-12 x 4-6 microns and in 2-spored forms 8-13 x 5-8 microns, elliptic to nearly oval, smooth, inamyloid; basidia 2- and 4-spored, (35)45-60 x 6.5-10 microns; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia not differentiated; gill tissue more or less parallel to slightly interwoven, the cells 57-159 x 7-36 microns and usually filled with yellowish contents; cap cuticle "a turf-like covering of hyphae with their free ends projecting", their terminal elements 66-122 x 8-22 microns, apices rounded, all parts yellowish in iodine, cap trama homogeneous; clamp connections present but rare at times, (Hesler), spores 8.6-10.3 x 5.7-7 microns, elliptic to suboval, smooth, inamyloid, (Phillips), spores 8.1-14.2 x 5.1-7.0 microns, elliptic, not constricted, and not variable in shape, inamyloid; cap cuticle a trichodermium, erect on disc, suberect toward margin, repent on margin, elements often agglutinated in clusters, "terminal cells long and clavate to relatively short and broadly clavate, 29.6-123.2 x 9.8-29.6 microns", (Largent), spores 7.0-12.0(14.0) x 4.5-6.5(7.0) microns (Arnolds)
Spore deposit: white (Phillips)
Habitat / Range
single or gregarious "on moist to mesic, sandy, loamy or peaty soils and on very decayed stumps and logs" in hardwood and mixed forests, often along trails, occasionally in bogs, (Arnolds), gregarious to subcespitose [more or less in tufts] "on rich humus, soil, decaying logs, moss-covered logs, in bogs", July to October, (Hesler), "in groups or clusters in rich soil, bogs, or on decaying and moss-covered logs", (Phillips), summer and fall (Miller)
Similar Species
Hygrocybe miniata is similar but H. cantharellus has a drier cap, a longer stem, paler colors, and arcuate-decurrent gills (Hesler). H. miniata usually has smaller spores (Arnolds, who gives (5.5)6.0-9.0(9.5) x (3.5)4.0-5.5(6.0) microns for H. miniata spores). Hygrocybe turunda has larger spores (9-14 x 5-8 microns in H. turunda var. turundus) and no brown tips on the fine scales on the cap, (Hesler). H. turunda is more likely to be found in Sphagnum, and usually has either darker scales on cap or at least brown pigment visible in terminal cells of cap cuticle under the microscope, (Arnold). Hygrocybe coccineocrenata also has larger spores ((9)10-14 x 5-9(10) microns according to Hesler for Hygrophorus turundus var. sphagnophilus) and is more likely to be found in Sphagnum. Hygrophorus moseri, common in coastal northwestern California has 1) a cap that is bald at first and hardly ever becomes finely scaly when dry, 2) a cap cuticle of the cutis type, 3) narrow cylindric pileocystidia, and 4) spores not over 9 microns long, (Largent). Rickenella fibula is smaller and has whitish gills (may dry dingy pink-orange).
