Appearance
Basidiocarps are agaricoid, up to 100 mm tall, the cap convex at first , becoming flat when expanded, up to 75 mm across. The cap surface is smooth, distinctly viscid when damp, bright lemon-yellow to orange-yellow.The lamellae are waxy, pale cap-coloured, and adnexed. The stipe is smooth, cylindrical or compressed and grooved, cap-coloured, and moist to somewhat viscid when damp. The spore print is white, the spores smooth, inamyloid, ellipsoid, about 7.5 to 9.0 by 4.0 to 5.5 μm.
Naming
The North American ''Hygrocybe flavescens'' is very similar in appearance, but is said to have a drier stipe. Boertmann has suggested it may not be distinct from ''H. chlorophana''. ''Hygrocybe glutinipes'' is similarly coloured, but is typically smaller with a glutinous, semi-translucent cap and an equally glutinous stipe. ''Hygrocybe ceracea'' is also similarly coloured, but has a waxy cap and stipe and broadly attached, almost decurrent gills.
Distribution
The golden waxcap is widespread throughout the north temperate zone, occurring in Europe, North America, and northern Asia; it has also been collected from the alpine areas of Mt. Wellington in Tasmania, Australia.
Status
In Europe, ''Hygrocybe chlorophana'' is typical of waxcap grasslands, a declining habitat due to changing agricultural practices. Though considered to be one of the commoner species in the genus, the golden waxcap nonetheless appears on the official or provisional national red lists of threatened fungi in several European countries, including Germany , Poland, and Switzerland. In 1997, the species was featured on a postage stamp issued by the Faeroe Islands.
Habitat
Like other waxcaps, it grows in old, unimproved, short-sward grassland in Europe, but in woodland in North America and Asia. Recent research suggests waxcaps are neither mycorrhizal nor saprotrophic but may be associated with mosses.References:
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