Pink Waxcap
This is a rare and beautiful mushroom and is easy to identify with it’s sharply conical top and pink colouring so should be left alone to grow when found and only admired or photographed.
Scientific Name – Hygrocybe / Porpolomopsis calyptriformis
Common Names:
Pink Meadow Waxcap (EN), Ballerina Waxcap, Cap Cwyr Pinc (CY), Stożkownica Czapeczkowata (PL), RózsaszÃnű Nedűgomba (HU)
Please note that each and every mushroom you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.
Cap
2-7 cm. Pale to darker pink with a greasy feel. Acutely conical but will flatten out a bit and spit radially with maturity.
Gills
Pink becoming pale pink with maturity, fairly widely spaced and free of the stem to slightly joined (adnexed).
Stem
5-8 cm tall, 0.5-1 mm wide. White but can have a pink tinge.
Habitat
In unimproved grassland like fields, pastures and graveyards.
Possible Confusion
The very rare Jubilee Waxcap (Gliophorus reginae) can look similar but is a deeper pink/purple, is not as sharply conical as the Pink Waxcap and the cap and stem are covered in slime.
Other Facts
This is a rare mushroom so should NOT be picked, it is also reported as not worth while in taste in some books. Waxcaps don’t like to be disturbed or sprayed so will be found where fields and woodland have been left alone.
It is now thought that waxcaps grow in association with mosses, before it was thought that waxcaps were saprophytic living or decaying organic matter.
