Mushroom Monday: Olive-Brown Waxy-Cap (Hygrophorus hypothejus)

Mushroom Monday: Olive-Brown Waxy-Cap (Hygrophorus hypothejus)

Today’s Mushroom Monday mushroom is the Olive-Brown Waxy Cap (Hygrophorus hypothejus).  It’s sticky, small, and associated with pines.  Learn more about it in today’s TrueTreeTalk post.

Their Size

The olive-brown waxy-cap mushroom is small.  Its cap ranges in size from around three to five centimeters across and its stem ranges in height from four to seven centimeters tall.

Their Appearance

The caps are sticky and have an olive brown to yellow color that is darker at the center.  As the mushroom ages, it can stain with yellow and orange, and this can be a way to distinguish it from similar-looking mushrooms.  The gills have a white to yellow color and they go down the mushroom’s stem.  The stem has a color similar to the gills and it is sticky for part of its length.

Where They Can Be Found

Olive-brown waxy-cap mushrooms can be found in groups or alone in acidic soil around pines, with which they have a mycorrhizal relationship, and other conifers in a variety of places in North America and Europe.  The fruiting bodies can be seen at the start of winter.

If you liked learning about olive-brown waxy-cap mushrooms (Hygrophorus hypothejus), check out our other Mushroom Monday posts on our TrueTreeTalk blog.  Follow us on Facebook to keep up with these and other posts.

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