Description
The basidiocarps are agaricoid, up to 4 cm (2 in) tall, the cap hemispherical to shallowly convex, up to 3.5 cm (1.5 in) across. The cap surface is smooth, slightly greasy when young, becoming dry and matt, bright scarlet to orange-red often with a yellow margin, striate often with a translucent central spot. The lamellae (gills) are waxy, orange, and broadly attached to the stipe. The stipe (stem) is smooth, cylindrical, viscid when young then dry, and cap-coloured or paler. The spore print is white, the spores (under a microscope) smooth, inamyloid, irregularly ellipsoid to oblong, often strongly constricted in the middle, about 7 to 8.5 by 4.5 to 6 μm. When placed on the tip of the tongue, fruitbodies have a bitter taste. [4]
Similar species
Several other European waxcaps are of similar size and colour. Hygrocybe amara , recently described from Slovakia based on DNA sequencing, shares the bitter taste of H. mucronella and differs only in having a more consistently orange pileus and slightly shorter spores. [5] Hygrocybe alpina , also described from Slovakia based on DNA sequencing and known from Sweden, is equally bitter, but has a montane distribution, a scarlet to carmine pileus, and longer spores. [5] The widespread Hygrocybe insipida is of similar size and colour, but has slightly decurrent lamellae and lacks the bitter taste. [4]
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