Blushing Waxcap

Hygrocybe ovina

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Appears in
Mushrooms

By Roger Phillips

Published 2006

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Blushing Waxcap Hygrocybe ovina (Bull.) Kühner. syn. Hygrophorus ovinus (Bull.) Fr. (illustrated 50% life size) Cap 2–8cm across, conico-convex, irregularly expanding and often broadly umbonate; dark sepia with yellowish-brown margin when fresh, drying pale sepia, bruising bright reddish. Stem 30–60×6–20mm, often compressed; dark grey-brown, bruising bright reddish. Flesh grey-brown; taste strong and unpleasant, smell nitrous, or occasionally absent. Gills dark sepia, discolouring bright reddish on bruising. Spores 7–9×5–6.5¼, broadly elliptical to ovoid. Spore print white. Habitat singly or in small tufts in grass; late summer. Occasional. Not edible.