Appearance
Basidiocarps are agaricoid, up to 150 mm tall, the cap convex to broadly umbonate becoming flat, up to 150 mm across. The cap surface is smooth, greasy to viscid, dull dark red to crimson becoming pale yellow to buff in places when dry. The lamellae are waxy, dark red to buff with purple tints and yellowish margin. The stipe is smooth but fibrillose and streaky, yellow to orange-red, whitish towards base, lacking a ring. The spore print is white, the spores smooth, inamyloid, ellipsoid, measuring about 8.5 to 10 by 4.5 to 5.5 μm.
Naming
The European "Hygrocybe splendidissima" can be almost as large, but is scarlet, has a dry cap and non-fibrillose stipe, and has a distinct honey smell when rubbed or when drying. The north temperate "Hygrocybe coccinea" is also scarlet, but normally much smaller than "H. punicea" and has a non-fibrillose stipe and a cap that is finely nodulose under a lens.
Distribution
The Crimson Waxcap is widespread but generally rare throughout Europe. Like most other European waxcaps, it occurs in old, agriculturally unimproved, short-sward grassland.Recent research suggests waxcaps are neither mycorrhizal nor saprotrophic but may be associated with mosses.
Status
"Hygrocybe punicea" is typical of waxcap grasslands, a declining habitat due to changing agricultural practices. As a result, the species is of global conservation concern and is listed as "vulnerable" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. "Hygrocybe punicea" also appears on the official or provisional national red lists of threatened fungi in several European countries, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, and Sweden.References:
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