Species details

Garlic waxcap

Hygrocybe helobia

Inedible

Description

A small orange to blood-red waxcap of bogs and peatlands; crushed gills may have a faint garlic smell.

Identification features

Cap 1–2.5 cm, orange to blood-red, convex at first, later nearly flat and slightly depressed when old. Gills are initially whitish-yellow, later orange to orange-red. Stem is thin, orange to orange-red and dry.

Identification checklist

Check the very small orange-red fruitbody in bog habitat, young whitish-yellow gills and, if possible, a faint garlic smell from crushed gills.

How to separate similar species

Hygrocybe miniata is similar but usually grows in different habitats and its crushed gills lack the garlic smell. Odour cannot be confirmed from a photograph.

Habitat

Grows mainly in bogs and peatlands, also on damp unfertilised grassland, among heather and in woodland clearings, in autumn; rare.