How to tell Meadow waxcap from Fool's funnel
Meadow waxcap and Fool's funnel look alike, so they're easy to mix up — but Meadow waxcap is edible, while Fool's funnel is poisonous. The main visible difference: smell: Meadow waxcap — odourless, Fool's funnel — floury. The mushrooms also differ in the following features: size. If you have even the slightest doubt, leave the mushroom be.
Not sure? Identify by photoSide by side
| Characteristic | Meadow waxcap | Fool's funnel |
|---|---|---|
| Edibility class | Meadow waxcap: Edible | Fool's funnel: Poisonous |
| Season | Meadow waxcap: Autumn, Winter | Fool's funnel: Summer, Autumn |
| Use | Meadow waxcap: Cook fresh | Fool's funnel: Not eaten |
| Size | Meadow waxcap: Medium (5–15 cm) | Fool's funnel: Small (up to 5 cm) |
| Cap colour | Meadow waxcap: Orange, Cream, Brown | Fool's funnel: White, Cream, Pink |
| Cap shape | Meadow waxcap: Convex, Flat, Umbonate | Fool's funnel: Flat |
| Cap surface | Meadow waxcap: Dry, Smooth | Fool's funnel: Smooth |
| Smell | Meadow waxcap: Odourless | Fool's funnel: Floury |
| Stem | Meadow waxcap: Central, Solid, Hollow | Fool's funnel: Central |
| Nutrition type | Meadow waxcap: — | Fool's funnel: Saprotroph |
| Growth habit | Meadow waxcap: Solitary, In groups, In rings | Fool's funnel: In groups, In rings |
Same in both: taste, flesh colour change, hymenophore, substrate.
POISONOUS
Eating it causes poisoning. Do not pick it unless you have identified it with certainty.
Toxin: muscarine in high concentration. Symptoms start fast, 15-60 minutes after eating. This is the classic muscarinic syndrome (PSL): profuse salivation (litres of it), heavy sweating that soaks through clothing, tearing, runny nose, constricted pupils (miosis), bronchospasm with a feeling of suffocation, bradycardia down to 30-40 bpm, a drop in blood pressure, intestinal cramps, diarrhoea and nausea. Severe cases bring collapse, pulmonary oedema and a risk of cardiac arrest. The antidote is atropine, given in hospital under ECG monitoring. If you suspect poisoning, call 112 or your local emergency number immediately. Keep the mushroom remains and any vomit. The prognosis is favourable with prompt treatment (1-2 hours).
If you suspect poisoning, call your local emergency number (112 in the EU, 999 in the UK) immediately
When and where they meet
Together: August–November
What they look like
Cap, Hymenophore, Stem, Flesh, Smell
Cap
Meadow waxcap
The cap is 2 to 8 cm across, up to 10 to 12 cm in large specimens. It starts convex, then flattens, often with a broad bump or a slightly sunken centre, and has a thin margin. The surface is dry and matt, smooth or with faint flattened fibres, slightly slippery in wet weather, and may crack with age.
The colour is pale salmon, apricot, orange-buff or brownish orange, fading to pale buff with age. A rare form is entirely white.
Fool's funnel
The cap is 2-5 cm across, convex when young, becoming flat and spread out or slightly funnel-shaped, with a thin wavy margin. It's whitish to cream, with characteristic pinkish-cream concentric zones or streaks running from the centre to the margin, a diagnostic feature. The surface is silky-matte and somewhat sticky in wet weather.
Hymenophore
Meadow waxcap
The gills are thick, broad, widely spaced, waxy to the touch and clearly decurrent, often running more than a centimetre down the stem. Many shorter gills sit between them, and older caps develop cross-veins. They start whitish or cream and later take on the cap colour.
The spore print is white. These thick, distant, decurrent gills are the best way to tell it from its lookalikes.
Fool's funnel
The gills are crowded and thin, running decurrent down the stem (typical of the genus Clitocybe). They're whitish to pale pink. The spore print is white.
Stem
Meadow waxcap
The stem is 3 to 8 cm tall and 0.5 to 1.5 cm thick, sturdy, solid and later hollow, tapering towards the base. It's white or cream, tinged with the cap colour at the top, and always paler than the cap. There's no ring or volva.
Fool's funnel
The stem is 2-5 cm tall and 0.4-0.8 cm thick, slender, cylindrical and often curved. It's whitish to cream, with white mycelial fuzz at the base. The surface is smooth, with no ring.
Flesh
Meadow waxcap
The flesh is thick in the cap, whitish, pale orange or pinkish buff, and doesn't change colour when cut.
Fool's funnel
The flesh is thin, white, watery and brittle, and it doesn't change colour when cut. The smell is faint and sweetish, the taste mild: dangerously "normal".
Smell
Meadow waxcap
The smell and taste aren't distinctive. There's no mealy smell, unlike the oak woodwax.
Fool's funnel
Faint, sweetish and nondescript, with nothing alarming about it. The taste is mild. Neither the smell nor the taste gives away that it's poisonous.
Related comparisons
Sources · 18
- [1]Index Fungorum
- [2]GBIF
- [3]Wikipedia (English)
- [4]Вікіпедія (українська)
- [5]First Nature: Cuphophyllus pratensis, Meadow Waxcap
- [6]First Nature: Hygrophorus nemoreus, Oak Woodwax
- [7]Kuo M., MushroomExpert: Cuphophyllus pratensis
- [8]Plantlife: UK Waxcap ID guide, 2024
- [9]Galloway Wild Foods: Waxcap fungi
- [10]Wikipedia (en): Waxcap grassland
- [11]Wikipedia (de): Orangefarbener Wiesen-Ellerling
- [12]Wikigrib: Гигрофор луговой
- [13]Chvikov V., Prylutskyi O. Annotated checklist of Hygrophoraceae (Agaricales, Basidiomycota) of Ukraine. Biodiversity, Ecology and Experimental Biology, 2020, 22(2): 6–23, Chvikov V., Prylutskyi O. (2020)
- [14]Halbwachs H. et al. Isotopic evidence of biotrophy and unusual nitrogen nutrition in soil-dwelling Hygrophoraceae. Environmental Microbiology, 2018, Halbwachs H. et al. (2018)
- [15]GBIF: знахідки Cuphophyllus pratensis в Україні
- [16]Атлас грибів України, Зеров Д.К. (1979)
- [17]MycoBank Database
- [18]iNaturalist Ukraine