Hygrophorus calophyllus
gray-brown waxy-cap
Hygrophoraceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
gray-brown waxy-cap
Hygrophoraceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Photograph
Species Information
Summary:
Features include an umber to gray brown, viscid or slimy cap that contrasts with the white or pink, waxy gills, and a stem that is cap-colored or somewhat paler up to an abrupt change to white just below the gills.
Cap:
4-11cm across, convex to broadly umbonate or flat; "evenly colored deep olive-brown to dark gray-brown to umber, the margin sometimes slightly paler"; "viscid or slimy when moist", smooth, (Arora), 5-11cm across, convex, obtuse, or with a low umbo and decurved [downcurved] margin, nearly flat when old; generally umber to gray-brown (one collection with a pink tint), '"raw umber," "dresden brown" or "olive brown" over all or slightly paler near margin'; glutinous to viscid, bald beneath the slime, (Hesler)
Flesh:
soft, thick; white, (Arora), thick; whitish, unchanging, one collection with a pink tint; in stem white and unchanging, (Hesler)
Gills:
"well-spaced, thick, soft, waxy, usually decurrent"; white or flushed delicate pink, (Arora), decurrent, subdistant to distant, narrow; evenly flushed a pale pink or at times white or in one collection salmon, not spotted, (Hesler)
Stem:
5-12cm x 1-1.5cm, equal or narrowing downwards; top white, otherwise colored like cap but usually slightly paler; smooth, not viscid, (Arora), 6-10(12)cm x 1-1.5cm, equal or slightly enlarged in upper part, solid; "buffy brown" up to an abruptly paler zone at line of gill attachment, the basal buried part gray; dry, bald and unpolished or with top slightly fibrillose-pruinose, (Hesler)
Veil:
absent (Arora)
Odor:
mild or slightly fragrant (Arora), faintly fragrant (Hesler)
Taste:
mild (Hesler)
Microscopic spores:
spores 5.5-8 x 4-5 microns, elliptic, smooth, (Arora), spores 5.5-8 x 4-5 microns, elliptic, smooth, inamyloid; basidia 2-spored and 4-spored, 40-60 x 6-8 microns, sterigmata stout; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia none; gill tissue divergent; clamp connections on cuticular and gill trama hyphae, (Hesler)
Spore deposit:
white (Arora)
Notes:
Hesler(1) examined collections from WA, OR, ID, QC, CA, CO, and Austria. There are collections from BC at the University of British Columbia.
EDIBILITY
yes (Arora)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Hygrophorus camarophyllus has an almost dry, streaked grayish brown cap and gills that are white to grayish-tinted, never pink, (Hesler). Hygrophorus marzuolus is entirely pallid when young, soon becoming streaky grayish including the gills, and fruits in the spring. Hygrophorus boyeri and Hygrophorus ''olivaceoalbus'' have viscid stems. See also Hygrophorus siccipes.Habitat
single or in small groups on ground under conifers, (Arora), singly, under Abies (fir) and Pinus (pine), August to November, (Hesler), summer, fall
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Hygrophorus camarophyllus var. calophyllus (P. Karst.) Konrad & Maubl.
Hygrophorus camarophyllus var. calophyllus (P. Karst.) Konrad & Maubl.
Hygrophorus caprinus var. calophyllus (P. Karst.) Quel.