BASIDIOMYCETES: Agaricales, Hygrophoraceae

Golden Waxy Cap, Hygrophorus flavescens or Hygrocybe flavescens

Basidiomycetes, order: Agaricales, family: Hygrophoraceae

Height to 3½"

Cap is up to 3" wide, convex, and becoming flattened with age. Surface is smooth and sticky and colored bright yellow to yellow-orange. Stalk is smooth, equal along its length, and colored as the cap, becoming paler toward the base. Gills are free or partly attached, descending down the stalk, pale yellow and waxy. Spore print is white. The Golden Waxy Cap is found in moist areas with humus in mixed woodlands during the summer and fall in eastern North America and during the winter in California. It is edible but insubstantial.