is the cap of a Hygrocybe conica always conical?

[AAK]

Hi all

Found late November on Butser Hill, Hampshire, a grassland site rich with waxcaps. It was a single specimen with a fibrillose, shiny dry cap of 3cm in diameter. The adnexed gills were pale yellow and had started to blacken, as had the 7cm yellow fibrous stipe. My concern with identifying it as Hygrocybe conica, the Blackening waxcap, relates to firstly, the flat cap structure – Boertmann states ” A very variable species, but always with a +- conical pileus…”. My second issue related to the spores which are significantly wider than those that are described elsewhere.

Can anyone shed some light on these issues.

Thanks and regards

Andrew

[Chris Johnson]

Hi Andrew

A well-reasoned post. Hygrocybe conica does occasionally expand to parallel but always (in my experience) with a noticeable umbo. I would also expect a fruitbody of this age to be rather blacker. The spore length is quite variable and I’ve found specimens with your measured lengths. However, the breadth is too great.

That takes us to Hygrocybe acutoconica. Closely related and usually quite robust. It tends to expand with age to parallel with a less distinct umbo and only blackens a little. The spores fit nicely too. They can be quite variable because many of the waxcaps have 2- and 4-spored basidia. The 2-spored being larger. The main difference between conica and acutoconica is the latter has broader spores.

This fits nicely with your find.

Regards, Chris

[gary]

Hi,

I thought acutoconica didn’t blacken? (didn’t they used to be called persistens?)

Boertmann tends to lump all conica together as a “complex”

But there is olivaceonigra in his book (which I’ve never seen) that blackens and has bigger spores.

If there was any chance that one of these FBs had been picked and dried then Gareth Griffith of Aberystwyth University would probably like it for DNA analysis.

[gary]

Also, not all the fungi have read the book.

[AAK]

Thanks Chris and Gary, greatly appreciate the input.

H.Acutoconica looks good from the perspective of spore dimensions but I cant find much related to it blackening. Olivaceonigra also ticks a number of boxes from the macro characteristics as described on Fungi of Great Britain and Ireland (http://fungi.myspecies.info/all-fungi/hygrocybe-olivaceonigra), until we get to spores – “Spores cylindric-oblong, sometimes slightly strangulated or curved on one side, 9-12.5 x 4.5-5.5 μm”.

Im afraid I didn’t dry or keep the fruitbody. If its possible to extract DNA from spores, I still have the slide and would be more than willing to send that away.

thanks and regards Andrew

[Lancashire Lad]

Boertmann (The genus Hygrocybe – page 164, 2nd edition) notes: –

“H.acutoconica may sometimes turn slowly grey, but not to a degree comparable to the blackening of H.conica“.

Looking at your images, I’d be thinking that this is more greyish than black, and certainly nowhere near as black as would be expected in fully mature H.conica.

Obviously, not possible at this stage to confirm whether the example did turn much blacker, but with its looks in the photos, and with spore size etc. I’d agree with Chris that it’s more likely to be H.acutoconica.

Regards,

Mike.

Edited to correct the spelling of “acutoconica”.

[Chris Johnson]

Lancashire Lad wrote:

Boertmann (The genus Hygrocybe – page 164, 2nd edition) notes: –

“H.autoconica may sometimes turn slowly grey, but not to a degree comparable to the blackening of H.conica“.

Looking at your images, I’d be thinking that this is more greyish than black, and certainly nowhere near as black as would be expected in fully mature H.conica.

Obviously, not possible at this stage to confirm whether the example did turn much blacker, but with its looks in the photos, and with spore size etc. I’d agree with Chris that it’s more likely to be H.autoconica.

Regards,

Mike.

I think you have been autocorrected on autoconica, Mike.

Regards, Chris

[Lancashire Lad]

Chris Johnson wrote:

I think you have been autocorrected on autoconica, Mike.

Regards, Chris

Ooops! – Thanks Chris.

Damn this modern day technology!!!

Hadn’t spotted that – even when I read my uploaded post!

I’ve now corrected it in my post to read “acutoconica” – as it should have in the first place.

Regards,

Mike.

[gary]

and I missed the line in Boertmann about turning grey (possibly because I’ve already turned grey).

[Chris Johnson]

gary wrote:

… (possibly because I’ve already turned grey).

It’s an exclusive club.

[Author]

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