[ Basidiomycota > Agaricales > Hygrophoraceae > Hygrocybe . . . ]

Hygrocybe subminiata

by Michael Kuo, 7 October 2024

Don't let the photo fool you; the illustrated mushroom is about 1 cm across. It was the largest in a troop of gorgeous little waxy caps growing in my yard. Tiny red waxies are notoriously difficult, so I didn't hold out much hope for a successful identification—but, happily, it turns out that Hygrocybe subminiata is fairly distinctive. Crucial features include its very tiny size, its sticky scarlet cap, its dry yellowish stem, and microscopic features (including 2-spored basidia and spores 7–9 µm long). Potential tiny red look-alikes include Hygrocybe mississippiensis, which features a dry and scurfy cap, as well as slightly smaller spores and 4-spored basidia; and Hygrocybe minutula, which features a sticky stem, a more convex cap that does not develop a wavy margin, smaller spores, and 4-spored basidia.

Hygrophorus subminiatus is a synonym.

Description:

Ecology: Precise ecological role uncertain (see Lodge and collaborators, 2013); growing gregariously in hardwood and conifer forests; summer through winter; originally described from Jamaica (Murrill 1911); possibly widely distributed in North America (reported from the southeastern United States, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest). The illustrated and described collection is from Illinois.

Cap: Up to 10 mm across; broadly convex, becoming planoconvex with a shallow central depression; sticky; bald; bright red; the margin somewhat wavy at maturity.

Gills: Broadly attached to the stem or beginning to run down it; distant or nearly so; orangish or yellowish.

Stem: Up to 3 cm long and 2 mm thick; more or less equal; dry or a little moist, but not sticky; bald; pale orange to yellow.

Flesh: Insubstantial.

Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.

Spore Print: White.

Microscopic Features: Spores 7–9 x 4–5 µm; ellipsoid or subcylindric; smooth; hyaline in KOH; inamyloid. Basidia 40–55 µm long; 2-sterigmate. Hymenial cystidia not found. Lamellar trama parallel. Pileipellis an ixocutis.

REFERENCES: Murrill, 1911. (Hesler and Smith, 1963; Stuntz, 1975.) Herb. Kuo 07160405.

This website contains no information about the edibility or toxicity of mushrooms.

Spores

Basidia

© MushroomExpert.Com

Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2024, October). Hygrocybe subminiata. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/hygrocybe_subminiata.html