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Species Information
Summary: This species has been known in North America under the name of the European species Hygrophorus hypothejus. Features include 1) a viscid or slimy cap that is olive-yellow, olive-brown, yellow-brown, or orange-yellow, usually with a darker center, 2) decurrent, subdistant to distant gills that are white, then pale yellow, darker when old, 3) a glutinous stem that is typically yellow on the upper part and white on the lower part, with a fleeting ring zone, and 4) a preference for pine habitat, especially (in the Pacific Northwest) lodgepole pine. This is a fairly common species included by Hesler(1) under the name of the related European species Hygrophorus hypothejus. Moreau(1) presented molecular and other evidence to show that H. hypothejus is a European species, and that North American material should be differentiated under the species names Hygrophorus boyeri and Hygrophorus siccipes. Although they differentiate Hygrophorus boyeri clearly, they say that the case for separating Hygrophorus siccipes from Hygrophorus hypothejus is less straightforward (see notes under Hygrophorus siccipes for details). The description here is from Moreau(1).
Moreau(1) studied material from QC but give the distribution as throughout North America and say "Collections are reported from Quebec and British Columbia [BC] in Canada, and from California [CA] in western United States".
Gills: "arcuate, more or less decurrent, distant to subdistant, thick, waxy, sometimes anastomosed with age; white at first but soon yellow", darker when old; edges smooth and colored as faces
Stem: 5-10(15)cm x 0.5-1.0(1.5)cm, cylindric, narrowing at base; "white and dry above the annular zone, below totally yellow to orange-yellow, or coloured down to the half or to the lower third of the stipe and white below, sometimes totally white when young, occasionally developing reddish tints with age"
Veil: "white cortinoid partial veil" leaving a fleeting annular zone, "covered under the annular zone with a white to yellowish glutinous veil" forming bands on the stem when drying
Odor: no discernible odor
Microscopic spores: spores (6.1)7.1-8.3(9.2) x (3.6)4.3-5.3(5.6) microns, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, thin-walled, when fresh microguttulate; basidia 4-spored, "or 2- and 4-spored mixed in some collections", 36-47 x 7-8.5 microns, "clavate to pyriform, multiguttulate", clamped; cystidia absent; hymenial trama slightly divergent, made of hyphae 3-7(9) microns wide, cylindric, colorless, thin-walled, ramified, with thromboplerous hyphae, 3-8 microns wide present in the mediostratum; clamp connections present on all septa
Spore deposit: white
Habitat / Range
single or in small groups; "in acidic sandy to rocky soil, often among mosses" under various pine species, in western North America particularly under Pinus contorta (Lodgepole or Shore Pine), or [in California] under Pinus muricata (Bishop Pine), and in eastern North America particularly Pinus banksiana (Jack Pine) and Pinus rigida (Pitch Pine); fruiting in fall (Moreau(1))
Similar Species
Hygrophorus siccipes has 1) a cap with darker colors that are dark brown to dark reddish, fading to dull ocher-brown or dingy orange, whereas the cap of H. boyeri is olivaceous brown to olivaceous yellow on a yellow background (sometimes orange-yellow or red-tinted), 2) less slender stature with a stem that is more orange when old and tends to be viscid or dry, not glutinous, and 3) 3-8 microns wide thromboplerous hyphae in the hymenial trama lacking in H. siccipes, (derived from Moreau(1) descriptions). Hygrophorus ''olivaceoalbus'' var. olivaceoalbus has white to grayish gills and a white stem sheathed in its lower part with dark zonal bands, and occurs in spruce forests. Hygrophorus fuligineus has a blackish brown to olivaceous brown cap that becomes grayish brown or olivaceous gray on a white background, (Moreau(1) who give its distribution as eastern North America). See also Hygrophorus discoideus, Hygrophorus calophyllus, Hygrophorus camarophyllus, and Hygrophorus morrisii.
