Wonderful Waxcaps

    It's that time of year, late autumn, when the waxcap family of fungi start to make an appearance. I have already found a few different members of this wonderful family including the beautiful Scarlet Waxcap. While at Thetford Forest last week I found a great area of grassland where I couldn't help but spend an hour head down looking for waxcaps of all colours.


    The beautiful Scarlet Waxcap(Hygrocybe coccinea), was there in good numbers, you really can't help but be happy when spotting them. Soon after I was looking at a lovely group of Snowy Waxcaps(Cuphophyllus virgineus), pure white with like all waxcaps the most wonderful gills.


   After around half an hour I spotted something that really got me excited, it was my first ever sighting of a Parrot Waxcap(Hygrocybe psittacina). These little beauties have been top of my "wants list" for a while and there was two together growing by some Snowy waxcaps. They were only small and more creamy in colour unlike the more common green, but the gills were a great giveaway.




   These were followed by a lot of Golden Waxcaps(Hygrocybe chlorophana), spread out over a large area, yet another first for me.

   The last waxcap of the morning was a large example of Meadow Waxcap(Cuphophyllus pratensis). There were some smaller ones around the same area but this was a big beautiful example.


   So all in all I had a great waxcap hunt, one which ticked off five fungi firsts and that really doesn't happen very often. Sometimes it can be weeks or even months before your next first comes along, I guess I was just lucky that day.

   

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