How to tell Meadow waxcap from Ivory funnel

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.

Cap 2-5 cm across, convex when young, becoming funnel-shaped over time, with a depressed centre and a thin wavy margin. Colour whitish, cream, with pale grey or ochre patches; silky-sheened in wet weather, chalky white when dry. Surface smooth, with barely visible radial streaks.

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.

Gilled hymenophore. Gills crowded, thin, decurrent down the stem (a hallmark of the genus Clitocybe). Colour whitish to cream. Spore print white.

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.

Stem 2-4 cm tall, 0.3-0.8 cm thick, slender, cylindrical, often curved. Colour whitish to cream, with white mycelial fuzz at the base. Surface smooth, no ring. Stem flesh firm.

The flesh is thick in the cap, whitish, pale orange or pinkish buff, and doesn't change colour when cut.

The flesh is thin, white, watery and brittle, and doesn't change colour when cut. It has a faint, pleasant smell (slightly sweet, or mealy according to some guides) and a mild taste, and that's what makes it so treacherous: it smells and tastes "right", so nothing sets off alarm bells.

The smell and taste aren't distinctive. There's no mealy smell, unlike the oak woodwax.

Faint and indistinct, slightly sweet; some guides describe it as mealy. This adds to the danger: the smell raises no suspicion. Never rely on smell when identifying mushrooms of this size.