''Hygrophorus erubescens'', commonly known as the blotched woodwax or pink waxcap, is an

agaric An agaric () is a type of fungal fruiting body characterized by the presence of a pileus (cap) that is clearly differentiated from the stipe (stalk), with lamellae (gills) on the underside of the pileus. It is a type of mushroom (or toadstool) ...

fungus native to Scandinavia, Japan, Central Europe, Great Britain and North America.

Taxonomy

Swedish mycologist

Elias Magnus Fries Elias Magnus Fries (15 August 1794 – 8 February 1878) was a Swedish mycologist and botanist. He is sometimes called the Mycology, "Linnaeus of Mycology". In his works he described and assigned botanical names to hundreds of fungus and li ...

described it as ''Agaricus erubescens'' in his 1821 work ''Systema Mycologicum''. The species name is derived from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''erubescens'', meaning "reddening" or "blushing". It became ''Hygrophorus erubescens'' with the raising of ''

Hygrophorus ''Hygrophorus'' is a genus of agarics (gilled mushrooms) in the family Hygrophoraceae. Called "woodwaxes" in the UK or "waxy caps" (together with '' Hygrocybe'' species) in North America, basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are typically fleshy, often ...

'' to genus rank.

Common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...

s include blotched woodwax, and pink waxcap. The species is classified in the subsection ''Pudorini'' of genus ''Hygrophorus'', along with the closely related species '' H. pudorinus'' and '' H. purpurascens''.

Description

The

fruit body The sporocarp (also known as fruiting body, fruit body or fruitbody) of fungi is a multicellular structure on which spore-producing structures, such as basidia or asci, are borne. The fruitbody is part of the sexual phase of a fungal life cyc ...

(mushroom) is a fair size, with a diameter light pink to white

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

that can be dotted with darker pink or red marks and bruises yellow. The colour is darker in the cap centre. Convex and flattening with age, the cap often has a boss and an inrolled margin when young. Its surface is slimy or sticky. The white

gills A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...

are adnate to somewhat

decurrent ''Decurrent'' (sometimes decurring) is a term used in botany and mycology to describe plant or fungal parts that extend downward. In botany, the term is most often applied to leaf blades that partly wrap or have wings around the stem or petio ...

, becoming pale pink as they mature. The stipe is tall and wide. The

spore print 300px, Making a spore print of the mushroom ''Volvariella volvacea'' shown in composite: (photo lower half) mushroom cap laid on white and dark paper; (photo upper half) cap removed after 24 hours showing warm orange ("tussock") color spore print. ...

is white and the oval spores measure 6.5–11 x 4.5–6.5

micrometre The micrometre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a uni ...

s. The mushroom has no strong odor or taste, though the former is sometimes described as pleasant. The species is inedible.

Similar species

The similar-looking '' Hygrophorus russula'' can be distinguished by its more crowded gills and preference for hardwood forests, and '' H. purpurascens'' has a

partial veil In mycology, a partial veil (also called an inner veil, to differentiate it from the "outer", or universal veil) is a temporary structure of tissue found on the fruiting bodies of some Basidiomycota, basidiomycete fungus, fungi, typically agarics. ...

. ''H. capreolaris'' is more evenly red in color, and does not stain yellow. ''H. amarus'' has a bitter-tasting cap and somewhat yellowish gills.

Habitat and distribution

''Hygrophorus erubescens'' fruits from August to October in

coniferous forest Conifers () are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All e ...

s, particularly

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

, on chalky soils. The mushrooms are found singly or sometimes in large troops. The range in North America is from the

Rocky Mountain The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

s to the West Coast and

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

north to the

Great Lakes region The Great Lakes region of Northern America is a binational Canadian– American region centered on the Great Lakes that includes the U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and the Ca ...

and southern parts of Canada. The fungus is classified as extinct in the

British Mycological Society The British Mycological Society is a learned society established in 1896 to promote the study of fungi. Formation The British Mycological Society (BMS) was formed by the combined efforts of two local societies: the Woolhope Naturalists' Fiel ...

's 2006 list of threatened fungi, as it has not been documented in Great Britain since 1878. It is found across Scandinavia, and has been recorded fruiting at high altitudes in alpine-subalpine regions of Russia, and mountainous parts of Central Europe. The species has been found in the East and Middle Black Sea regions of Turkey. In Japan, it is most common in coniferous woods, and has been recorded from

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

and

Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...

References

External links