Plants and animals of Pointfield

Large; cap to 5 cm in diameter, domed to subconical; scarlet often with an orange-yellow margin; smooth, polished waxy surface; drying to cream centrally. Gills adnexed and emarginate, pale orange-yellow in colour. Stalk stout - 8-10 mm diameter, pale orange-yellow in colour becoming white distally, and more or less dry; finely striate and typically ovate in cross-section with a median longitudinal sulcus giving the stem an hour-glass cross-section. Spore print white. Spores pip-shaped, smooth-walled with asymmetric apiculus and no germ pore; 6.8-8.2 x 4.0-4.7 um,.mean = 7.4 x 4.4 um: Q = 1.7.

Differs from the very similar H. coccinea in having a cap that develops a distinctly two-tone appearance as it ages, much stouter stem that is finely striate. It is also earlier to appear.

Waxcap meadow; moderately common.