Hygrocybe conica

Blackening Waxcap

Scientific identification: Hygrocybe conica (Schaeff.) P. Kumm.
Family: Hygrophoraceae
Class: Agaricomycetes
Genus: Hygrocybe

Names across languages

English: Blackening Waxcap
German: Kegeliger Saftling
Finnish: Kartiovahakas
Estonian: Kuhik-vesinutt
Russian: Гигроцибе коническая

The scientific profile

From the latest record: 2026-09-03.

Hymenium

Gills moderately close, initially pale yellow to orange-yellow, becoming orange and finally grey-black

Cap

Sharply conical to bell-shaped, sometimes broadly conical with age; smooth, greasy to slightly viscid when moist, silky when dry; yellow, orange to scarlet-red

Hymenium Attachment

Adnexed to nearly free

Stipe

Slender, cylindrical, sometimes flattened or longitudinally grooved; yellow to orange-yellow, paler toward base; fragile, ring absent

Spore print

Spore print white

Ecology

Ecology uncertain; in unimproved nutrient-poor grasslands, meadows, lawns, churchyards, roadside verges and mossy turf; alone or gregariously; summer to late autumn

Edibility

Not recommended, may be poisonous

Fruit body

Fruit body small to medium; stipe ~3–10 cm long and ~0.3–1 cm thick

Dimensions

Cap ∅ ~2–7 cm

Flesh

Yellow to orange, thin and fragile, rapidly becoming grey-black to jet black when cut or bruised

Chemical reactions

KOH negative on cap surface

Odour

Indistinct

Taste

Indistinct

Microscopy

Spores ellipsoid to oblong, smooth, hyaline, inamyloid, ~8–11.5 × 5–7.5 µm; basidia 2- or 4-spored; hymenial cystidia absent; lamellar trama parallel; pileipellis an ixocutis