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Slimy Waxcap

Inedible Inedible
Autumn Autumn
Summer Summer
Winter Winter

The sliminess of this Waxcap makes it both easy to identify but very hard to handle. Due to it being covered in slime it in considered inedible.

Mushroom Type
Common Names Slimy Waxcap (EN), Cap Cwyr Llysnafeddog (CY), Wilgotniczka Szara (PL), Szürke Nedűgomba (HU)
Scientific Name Hygrocybe / Gliophorus irrigatus
Synonyms Hygrocybe irrigata, Hygrocybe unguinosa, Hygrophorus irrigatus, Gliophorus unquinosus
Season Start Jul
Season End Dec
Average Mushroom height (CM) 5
Average Cap width (CM) 3
Please note that each and every mushroom you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.

Cap

Covered in slime and grey to grey/brown, can sometimes be quite pale. Starting conical but partly flattening out.

Gills

The gills are widely spaced and notched before becoming slightly decurrent. There are transverse ‘gills’ running between the main gills.

Stem

Concolourous with the cap, hollow and covered in slime. 

Flesh

Grey to off white with a hollow stem.

Habitat

Amongst grass in pastures, fields and sometimes open woodland.

Possible Confusion

Other grey waxcaps but these will not be covered in slime. The Slimy Waxcap has no distinctive smell.

Spore Print

White. Ellipsoid to oval.

Frequency

Common.

Other Facts

Waxcaps don’t like to be disturbed or sprayed so will be found where fields and woodland have been left alone.
It is now thought that waxcaps grow in association with mosses, before it was thought that waxcaps were saprophytic living or decaying organic matter.

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