Blackening waxcap Gallery Home

(Hygrocybe conica) (Scheff.: Fr.) P. Kumm.

©Per Fadnes

Hygrocybe conica is a very common waxcap and quite easy to recognize on the yellow color which is quickly blackening. It is large and usual has a conical cap and a  fibrillose stem.

It belongs to the subgenus Hygrocybe which is recognized by regular trama-cells which means the cells in the gills have a length of 200-1000µm or more. Blackening waxcap has been shown to consist of several closely related srpecies and should therefore be referred to as Hygrocybe conica (coll).

Characteristics:

Cap	Gills	Stipe	Similar species
Large, up to 100mm. First conical later expanded with umbo often irregulary lobed. Color varies from yellow to red but gets quicly black when old.	Free or adnexed. First white to yellow, later dark to black. Spores 8-10µm, form varies, but often ellipsoide.	Up to 100 mm, sylindrical, longitudal fibrillose, dry, yellow later blackish.	Very characteristic with the blackening fruitbodies H. intermedia, but it does not get black with age.

Ecology/Indicatorvalue:

H. conica has no indicatorvalue. It has very few demands and can be found as the only waxcap also in fertilized grasslands.

Frucrification in Norway: From medio June to medio December, mainly in August/September.

Redlistcategory: Not listed

Distributionmap

References:

David Boertmann.2010, The genus Hygrocybe, 2nd revised edition. Fungi of

Northern Europe vol. 1 Svampetryk, Danmark.