Testing, testing: some buff waxcaps

Lots of lovely rain this week, and back to Henfield churchyard in the drizzle.

The White Spindles Clavaria fragilis were looking even more impressive than last time.

Sticking up above the sward, I saw a buff-coloured mushroom.

I thought it must be one of those buff-coloured Cuphophyllus species, like Cuphophyllus virginea var. ochraceopallida – glistening because it was wet with rain.

But a look underneath quickly dispelled that idea.

The shape of the gills and the stem was all wrong for Cuphophyllus. I'd have to collect this one, to get a closer look at it.

Picking it up, I felt that both the cap and stem were very slimy; the mucus stuck to my fingers and pulled away in thin strings.

This seemed such a distinctive feature, I started with this in my waxcap ID tool:

• Texture of cap surface: viscid
• Texture of stipe surface: viscid

Then I added...

• Cap colour: pale brown (inc. buff, fawn)

... and found the tool was leading me towards Heath Waxcap Hygrocybe laeta var. laeta.  

It's not a species I'm familiar with, but a quick read through the description in Boertmann led me to conclude it can't be that. My collection had no distinctive smell that I could detect; broadly adnate rather than decurrent gills; and no viscid edge to the gills, as far as I could see. 

Looking at the options for species with:

• Texture of cap surface: viscid
• Texture of stipe surface: viscid
• Gill shape: broadly adnate

I came to wondering if I'd found an unusually pale example of Slimy Waxcap Hygrocybe irrigata. Boertmann's description does note that this species can be "... pale greyish brown, sometimes whitish..." 

I realised if I changed my selection in the ID tool to...

• Cap colour:whiteish (inc. ivory, cream, pale buff)

... then my collection would have keyed out straight away as Slimy Waxcap Hygrocybe irrigata. So I think that must be what I've got here.


Honestly, colours have been the bane of this project! I spent WEEKS trying to figure out a sensible way of categorising waxcap colours for this ID tool...

I made myself a little bit crazy before Christmas, trying to design a continuous colour spectrum you could use to describe the colour of waxcaps. It didn't work and I have learned never to attempt anything like this again. pic.twitter.com/1txbaq46Mq

— Clare Blencowe (@__clare__) February 5, 2019

... and now here I am tripping myself up with distinctions between "buff" and "pale buff". Anyway, I think I can go with this collection being "pale buff".

NEXT UP

Some more, smaller, whiteish / buff coloured mushrooms.

This time they do look like they're from the Cuphophyllus group, with those decurrent, arcuate gills.

I selected all the features in the ID tool. And I got stuck then, because they seem to fit for Snowy Waxcap C. virginea (which has some brownish varieties) OR Cedarwood Waxcap C. russocoriacea. 

A smell of pencil sharpenings would clinch it for C. russocoriacea. But I'm not very good with smells. I think maybe I'm getting it... or is that just my imagination? I'll put it in a box for a bit and see if that intensifies any smell.

There doesn't seem to be an obvious way of separating these two species on microscopic features either. Boertmann's key separates these two on a the basis of "smell strong like Russia leather or cedar wood" in C. russocoriacea. 

Hmm.

*has another sniff*

Still not sure.


Found another nice grassland species, which isn't a waxcap.

I think this mushroom is Pink Domecap Rugosomyces carneus.

There was also this going on, but I'm not ready to get into Corals just yet. Unless I can call it Beige Coral Clavulinopsis umbrinella and be done with it?

For the record
Date: 27/09/2019
Location: Henfield churchyard, West Sussex