Wax Caps: Limacium Group

Limacium means ‘of snails’ and refers to the slime on the caps of mushrooms in this important group.

A fine woodland mushroom which belongs to it is H. marzuolus, which has a thick foot and a cap of good size (up to 10 cm/4" across). It is sometimes called charbonnier, because the cap of an adult specimen is normally black (though parts shielded from contact with the air, for example by a wet and fallen leaf, remain white). It prefers high altitudes; arrives early in the year (hence the French name hygrophore de Mars), growing just after the snow has thawed or even in the snow, and is well known in the Jura, the French Alps, and Switzerland. Jaccottet (1973) remarks on the need for human collectors to be keen eyed if they are to discern it in the moss and fallen leaves where it hides, and alert if they are to anticipate squirrels. A friend of his, contemplating from behind a tree trunk four specimens which he had come across after a long search, was frustrated to see a squirrel come forward and bear off the biggest and best. He had to make do with the other three, and was further discomforted by a qualified rebuke from Jaccottet, who considered that they too rightly belonged to the squirrel.